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Manufacturing Execution Systems – MES
Jürgen Kletti (Ed.)
Manufacturing
Execution Systems – MES
With 100 Figures
123
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Foreword
Abbreviations................................................................................................. 257
The classic factory has been defined by its manufacturing of goods. The
goods and their value have been measured primarily by their material
components. This is no longer adequate today. Increasing globalization is
necessarily leading towards more anonymous products out of long supply
chains and with an increasing complexity to track their origins. This im-
plies a shifted focus from control of production creation (vertical integra-
tion) to control of product perception by the customer (OEM). Customers
today take it for granted that products will be of first-class quality. Anyone
wishing to stand out from the competition in the future needs a strategy
which offers the customer an additional added value, such as, for example,
high flexibility, short delivery times, high delivery reliability, wide range
of variants, shorter product life cycles – properties which are not created
by production but by the processes. The term “adaptive manufacturing”,
which is heard more and more often these days, describes this approach as
“connecting the machines to the markets.”
For this reason many classic manufacturers today already define their
production facilities as a service center, thereby signaling to the customer
that they understand the processing of material into a finished product as
also being a service for the customer. This increase in closeness to the cus-
tomer initially results in cost increases. Modern producers attempt to cancel
out these increased costs by rethinking their vertical integration, in some
cases by using standard components or by sourcing suitable components on
the global market. The modern producer is thus faced with forces which
can be referred to as networking, dynamization and individualization .
The term “networking” means the increasing inter-company coopera-
tion. In today’s public discussion is principle is named globalization.
Thanks to this networking the manufacturer can purchase on the market
the components he needs thus leaving him able to concentrate on his core
competences which he then, in a supply chain management strategy, in-
corporates effectively into the total product manufacturing chain.
Dynamization originates in strong market fluctuations which, driven
by more information and ever more rapidly disseminated information,
2 1 New ways for the effective factory
way production can react quickly and cost-effectively to meet new re-
quirements.
The present book is intended to throw light on various aspects of MES
and the use of MES and should also describe how potentials for improve-
ment can be identified and exploited, even in a heavily automated industry.
Shop production
In shop production all machines which carry out the same tasks are
grouped together into shops – for example, all lathes and turning machines
in the turning shop, all milling machines in the milling shop (layout by
machine). In this case the time flow of production is tied to batches. Not
until the last workpiece in a batch has been processed are all members of
1.2 Production structures 5
the batch sent on to the next operation. The result of this in a multi-step
process is an unclear flow of material with long transportation paths, queu-
ing and waiting times, large work in progress inventories and poor compli-
ance with scheduled times. Shop production originated in the pursuit of
high flexibility and simplified layout planning.
Push principle
The push principle means that production orders are generated in a central
production planning and control facility and are then executed in the pro-
duction department. Examples of push methods of this kind are:
6 1 New ways for the effective factory
Pull principle
With the pull principle, items are only produced in response to a customer
demand for them. The customer order generates a requirement in the final
assembly department. This requirement in turn generates a requirement in
pre-assembly, and so on – in other words, the sales order works its way
backwards through production until it reaches material procurement. The
aim of the pull principle is to reduce the control overhead and to make
production more transparent and less inventory-hungry. Examples of pull
methods of this kind are:
Kanban
The kanban method is based on autonomous control cycles between
a consuming station and a producing station. Here the producing station
receives a signal which tells it what parts are needed in what quantity at
what time by the consuming station. The signal is given by means of
kanban cards. Kanban is used predominantly in mass production on
a flow production basis.
CONWIP (constant work-in-process) is based on the kanban system but
still includes the control cycles of several stations found in flow pro-
duction.
Synchronous production
In synchronous production the ideal production line produces with the
same work cycles as the customer or in accordance with customer call-
1.2 Production structures 7
offs. Chaining the work steps means that it is only necessary to control
a single process step in the entire process chain. The pacemaker process
is the process which is directly controlled by the customer. The aim of
this method is to achieve a continuous flow (one-piece flow).
Agent control
Higher level IT systems determine star dates on the basis of the cus-
tomer dates. On the basis of this information, work pieces, installations
and transportation systems negotiate the process flow decentrally and
autonomously while taking the current state of production into account
at all times.
As has already been said, not every control method is suitable for every pro-
duction structure. In practice the following combinations are encountered:
Fig. 1.1. Control methods in relation to the production structure (Fraunhofer IITB,
2005)
Corporate management
The level of corporate management will, of course, be concerned primarily
with commercial duties. From sales and design activities emerges product
range planning and the associated quantity planning. Once quantity plan-
ning has been completed on a customer-, order- or stock-oriented basis, the
order release will be given. As a result of this, or even dependent on it, the
time scheduling and capacity requirements planning must start for produc-
tion. In virtually all cases this planning step will be rough planning – in
other words, using a rough grid commensurate with the processing time
period, the capacities available are examined and also the units to be
manufactured on these capacities. On the basis of the information flowing
back from production the inputs for the next production period or for the
next planning section can be changed if necessary.
1.2 Production structures 9
Production management
Production management receives the order loading and the corresponding
dates from corporate management and carries out sequencing and loading
planning. This planning step should be referred to as “finite planning”.
Here the orders or operations are scheduled out to the available capacities
with the most exact start dates possible being determined and passed on to
the actual production department. This production management level also
includes collection of the production data with whose help a real-time tar-
get/actual comparison can be carried out between input requirements and
the real information.
All types of resource management are normally carried out on this level.
The preparation of personnel deployment plans is a special task which is
usually performed by production management. Even quality assurance with
its wide range of functions regarding data acquisition and evaluation is
normally a task which falls under production management.
Fig. 1.2. The three principle types of production in manufacturing industry. Each
of these types has an ERP, an MES and an automation level.
station takes into account aspects relating to the particular branch of indus-
try such as, for example, the color sequence in injection molding or the
suitability of tools and machine combinations for producing specific arti-
cles. But this control station approach still can only deliver a limited
amount of improvement. If the current actual situation is not included in
the corresponding new planning, we do not have a control facility here but
rather a planning facility, as previously. If ERP-based planning is referred
to as rough planning, the use of APS or control-station–oriented planning
means that so-called detailed planning can be achieved.
More detailed and dedicated functionalities, such as online display of
current states, display of utilization ratios, online interpretation of regis-
tered and unsatisfactory qualities, and also the display of incorrect states
are missing in control station. Evaluations which tell you tomorrow what
you could have done better today are only of interest in a statistical respec-
tively historical view.
At this point even the term “transparency” takes on a new meaning.
Transparency in modern production no longer only means the ability to
comprehend past history without omission or gaps and from this to derive
recommendations for future actions. Today, transparency also means visu-
alizing realities in real time, drawing conclusions from this, and then
communicating recommendations to the appropriate persons in order to put
an immediate end to incorrect states.
The origins of the MES concept are to be found in the data collection sys-
tems of the early 1980s. The various disciplines in corporate management
such as production planning, personnel, and quality assurance were fur-
nished with dedicated data collection systems. This situation is shown in
the following diagram: task areas which are almost mutually independent
are equipped with special data collection systems.
With the rise of the CIM concept (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)
a start was made on reproducing the interdependencies of these task areas
in the IT systems as well. Production, personnel and quality were no
longer seen as completely independent but rather data crossovers were
permitted from one task to another. Unfortunately this approach, correct as
it was in principle, did not emerge as a real and strong IT discipline. Trivi-
alization of the problem definition and a misuse of the term by smaller
system vendors in the sense that with time every data collection terminal
14 1 New ways for the effective factory
Fig. 1.3. Each area of activity in corporate management has a particular data col-
lection method assigned to it which is also independent of the others
was labeled a CIM system. In this way CIM had spoiled its standardization
potential as a problem-solving IT discipline for production.
In the early and mid-1990s the manufacturers of data collection systems
commenced upgrading their in some cases specialized systems (labor time,
PDA, CAQ, DNC, and so on) by adding features from associated fields
(for example: staff work time logging with PDA, PDA together with
MDE). With a small number of combination systems of this kind it was
already possible to put together a data collection (and sometimes a data
evaluation) system for many functional areas of a manufacturing company.
The system components were, however, independent of each other and
synchronizing them required major work on interfacing. Over the course of
time three groups of data collection/evaluation systems formed. From the
independent data collection systems, combination systems emerged, some
of which performed several tasks. All in all, the functionality of these
combination systems describes the functional scope of MES today:
For production matters: PDA, MDE, DNC, control station;
For personnel matters: staff work time logging, access control, short-
term manpower planning;
For quality assurance matters: CAQ, measured data acquisition.
In the real world of production these three task areas cannot be sepa-
rated from each other. Production accordingly needs suitable personnel to
1.4 Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) 15
Fig. 1.5. Mutually independent data collection systems were networked and in
some cases connected to corporate management and automation via uniform inter-
faces
16 1 New ways for the effective factory
be able to produce and must know as fast as possible about the level of
quality it is producing. If mutually independent systems exchange their
data via interfaces or if data exchange actually takes place via systems on
the corporate level, too much of the time is lost which really ought to be
available to allow an effective reaction. Therefore the demand arose that
systems must be more connected or even horizontally integrated. To point
out straight: only a few systems available on today’s market support this
kind of deep horizontal integration.
Networked data acquisition and evaluation systems make it possible to
homogenize data exchange with the ERP system or with the automation
level. Here data is received from or sent to external systems via standard-
ized interface mechanisms. Provided these basic conditions of networking
and of unified interface technology are satisfied, data collection systems
are already coming close to the MES concept. Systems of this kind thus
support manufacturing operations by complying with the so-called 6 R’s
rule which states:
MESA
MESA (Manufacturing Execution Solutions Association) already has the
concept as part of its name and as the first organization to adopt this con-
cept is probably the most experienced to report on it. MESA’s approach
here is a very pragmatic one and describes twelve function groups which
are required for an effective support of production management. These
function groups are:
18 1 New ways for the effective factory
ISA S 95
A committee consisting of about 200 users and manufacturers has started
to define the ISA S 95 standard on the basis of the ISA S 88 version. One
aim here is to define what is meant by an MES. The term MOS – manufac-
turing operation system – was coined here as well. ISA S 95 is based on
a 3-level structure: corporate management, MOS/MES and the actual auto-
mation level. The automation level itself is divided into three different
types. Type 1 is so-called “continuous or process manufacturing”. Type 2
is so-called “batch manufacturing”. By this is meant batch- or lot-oriented
continuous manufacturing. Type 3 is “discrete manufacturing” – in other
words, item-oriented manufacturing. ISA S 95 deals extensively with the
subject of interfacing between Level 1 and Level 2 and defines it in Parts 1
and 2 of the standard. Part 3 is concerned with activities within Level 2 –
in other words, within MOS/MES.
What can be seen as the main aspects here are production management
itself, data acquisition, the interfaces with the automation level, failure
management and close-to-production statistics. Requirements regarding
the data structures and the data models are very pronounced in S 95.
Activity models are defined for the necessary activities within the
MOS/MES level. The first models are already available, for example, for
NAMUR
NAMUR is a group of end users particularly involved with systems in the
process industry (chemical or pharmaceutical industry). NAMUR’s rec-
ommendations are based on the ISA S 95 definition and the group goes
beyond the standard itself to make more concrete definitions. Functions
and information flows are described in the form they take in the process
Fig. 1.9. In its recommendations the NAMUR organization provides a very de-
tailed overview of the functionalities best implemented in the process industry
22 1 New ways for the effective factory
industry in particular. Even the line separating the actual automation level
and MES is not so clearly marked here. The probable reason for this is that
in the process industry important parts of production management have to
be mapped into the machine or plant control systems themselves before
quality or effectiveness targets can be reached.
In the case of a few large installations within a plant, even the boundary
between rough planning and detailed planning, or medium-term and short-
term planning, is not to be drawn as distinctly as in a shop-oriented pro-
duction environment where there is a disproportionately greater possibility
of product variants in production. The NAMUR recommendations thus
represent good practical information for setting up MES systems in the
process-oriented environment.
VDI
In 2004 the VDI (Verein Deutsche Ingenieure), on the basis of the above-
mentioned standards and of current findings and market developments,
started work on defining the term MES in a VDI guideline . A special con-
cern of this guideline is to give the term MES a fixed meaning and thus
prevent it from being misused by certain system vendors, who tend to
jump on every new “buzz word” for pure marketing purposes. Target is to
keep up a strong and benefit oriented perception in the eyes of manufactur-
ing industry leaders. This guideline seeks to draw a distinction in MES
requirements and in MES functions between the various types of manufac-
turing. The highly automated line-production manufacturer will have func-
tion requirements which are different from those of the small-series manu-
facturer. In its structure the guideline is not primarily concerned with the
functions which an MES system should provide but seeks rather to define
the tasks which an MES system should perform in a manufacturing enter-
prise. In the organization of the guideline, special care was taken with the
applicability of this recommendation. In this regard the terminology was
expressly selected to correspond to that actually used in practice.
The tasks which an MES system should perform in the view of the VDI
are the following:
Detailed planning and detailed scheduling control
Operating resources management
Material management
Personnel management
Data acquisition and processing
Interface management
Performance analysis
1.4 Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) 23
Quality management
Information management
When we consider the tasks we have so far described, tasks which an MES
should perform within the context of different control strategies and differ-
ent kinds of manufacturing types, the question arises as to what the ideal
MES is. Is there an ideal MES anyway?
Throughout all manufacturing industries, “yes” will certainly not be the
answer to this question. Nevertheless an attempt should still be made to
sketch out the functionalities an MES should ideally have for the environ-
ment of discrete manufacturing or even of batch-oriented manufacturing.
The “working area” of an MES will, of course, extend from interfacing
with corporate management applications as far as the deepest depths of
data acquisition, communication with industrial systems and the provision
of data for machine controllers or influencing the machine controllers di-
rectly. This extensive operational area, which not only includes a compre-
hensive range of different topics but which must also cover different time
levels, ranging from days and weeks down to seconds, also calls for
a tiered examination of the individual functionalities. This examination can
thus be subdivided into the following areas:
The functionalities of an MES itself
Communication with corporate management applications
Communication with the manufacturing environment
As a rule a PPS covers three function groups: production, quality and per-
sonnel. Within these function groups powerful modules are available which
can be activated and used depending on requirements. A basic system
ensures that all modules are linked together in real time and furthermore
provides intermodular functionalities. Another important function is acting
as the information hub.
In an analogous manner to these function groups in the PPS/ERP sys-
tem, an MES can also be divided into three function groups. These are
primarily the functionalities for production, the functionalities for quality
and the functionalities for personnel allocation. To prevent these functions
from appearing rather too abstract, we shall use the descriptions and in
some cases the designations used in the classic definitions of the modules
from which the MES developed.
24 1 New ways for the effective factory
Data storage
In an MES, data storage should always be right up to date technically and
use standardized databases. One especially important point is the adapta-
bility of an MES. Production systems are structured in various ways. Proc-
esses in different production systems cover a very wide range. A standard
solution can scarcely be powerful enough for it to be possible to make all
conceivable modifications via parameters. In addition, the complexity of
28 1 New ways for the effective factory
In the past a two-layer model arose automatically from the two levels of
automation and ERP. In most cases information was exchanged manually
between the two layers.
The connection between the levels of corporate management and of
production was thus a very indirect one and communication cycles were
designed with a resolution of several days. With the development of the
MES concept, even production management, as seen from the IT side,
became a distinct discipline. It has now become possible to assign really
specific fields of action to the three levels of corporate management, pro-
duction management and production. In its dealings with ERP or PPS,
corporate managements tend to work on a long-term basis with a resolu-
tion of weeks or months. Rough production planning deals with a medium-
term range of weeks or days, while detailed planning – also known as load
planning – acts in the short term in days and shifts. Decisions taken within
production management must be made within a time range extending from
shifts down to minutes while automation with its machine and plant con-
trol systems needs, of course, to react within minutes or even seconds.
The corresponding diagram symbolizes a control characteristic within
the different levels whereby the control cycles run within the time resolu-
tions shown. There are, of course, no precise boundaries between the three
levels of a manufacturing company. Accordingly, between ERP and MES
we find the APS (advanced planning and scheduling) functions which,
depending on the type of production, tend to be closer to ERP or to MES.
Just as fuzzy is the demarcation between the MES and automation. The
presence of functions such as data acquisition and the transmission of ma-
chine settings alone creates a tight connection between the two levels
which should still nevertheless be regarded as separate levels and whose
character tends to be related to planning on the one hand and to technical
implementation on the other.
30 1 New ways for the effective factory
In the first sections of this chapter three different types of production are
examined. Figure 1.11 seeks to answer qualitatively the question “How
much does each production type need MES?”
As we have already said, the functionalities of APS and of system control
are located in the overlap areas of the three corporate levels. For the sake of
clarity we can also say that in the demarcation between ERP and MES func-
tionalities, MES tends to act with a technological orientation and in real time
while activities in ERP tend to be commercial and cut to the medium term.
Not only that but the three MES levels of a manufacturing company
work with completely different time horizons. Within these time horizons
they are autonomous control systems whose control cycle is oriented by
the corresponding horizon.
The definition of a discrete type of production indicates that in the proc-
esses there are many degrees of freedoms with the aid of which
a production order can be channeled through production. Of course, de-
grees of freedom also mean many opportunities for long transfer times,
waiting times and inefficient order sequences.
Situation- and technology-oriented planning aids are required here which
enable production management to react swiftly and appropriately to errors.
An MES covers part of the APS functionalities at this point. At the border
with automation the MES permits direct data tapping within production.
The situation is somewhat different with mass production and assembly
line production. Here the difference between rough and detailed planning
With the 3-level structure we have described it has been possible, using
the MES as a linking element between corporate management and produc-
tion, to achieve vertical integration throughout. In the IT world, with
a model of this kind there is now no necessity for any instances of modal
fragmentation in which protracted and time-shifted manual recording and
data acquisition routines prevent information exchange in real time. Via the
MES the ERP level can now supply production with up-to-date information
in real time. Via the MES, ERP receives back correctly prepared informa-
tion at the right time. However, at this point the MES does supply produc-
tion management in real time with the technology- and situation-oriented
information which is needed for a timely response to faults and malfunc-
tions or to keep fault conditions as short-lasting as possible. Despite the
tight coupling afforded by vertical integration the three time levels are de-
coupled to the extent that each level can act correctly and the company as
a whole can still map time domains ranging from long-term to online.
The attention currently being given to vertical integration shows how im-
portant the role of the MES is in the architecture of a company. According to
what has already been said, within production management – in other words,
in the domain of the MES – there are three function groups: production,
Fig. 1.13. Vertical integration ensures that the different levels in the company are
supplied at the right time with information (in the way they need it) from the other
levels
1.5 Vertical and horizontal integration 33
personnel and quality. In very few cases indeed are these function groups
independent of each other. To manufacture something, the right personnel
are needed at the right time and this expensive resource, the individual,
should be employed as effectively as possible at the right place. In produc-
tion, parts can be produced with different qualities and these need to be in-
spected. This short list alone demonstrates that production management, if it
is to function effectively, must attend to all three function groups more or
less simultaneously. From this arises the demand that these three function
groups need to be connected very closely together. According to this, the IT
system which maps these functionalities should act in the most uniform
manner possible and be based on a single data pool. This prevents duplicated
acquisition of data, redundant master data and transaction data.
This so-called horizontal integration is thus an important requirement
whereby an MES system provides production management with effective
support. The above considerations show how important this integration
mechanism (the MES system) is to vertical integration in a manufacturing
organization. Vertical integration is an important requirement if a manu-
facturer is to enjoy a competitive future.
Fig. 1.14. Vertical integration is important for the effective functioning of the
entire company. Horizontal integration in the MES domain is a special instance of
implementation and permits effective working with the different function groups
in an MES
34 1 New ways for the effective factory
The use of an MES in the company depends less on the size of the com-
pany or the particular industry but rather on the production structure (shop
production, production segments, assembly line/flow production, etc.) and
the type of production (non-repetitive production, one-off and small-series
production, quantity production, mass production). While the main reason
for using an MES in the case of multistage shop production (turning shop,
milling shop, electroplating shop, etc.) is to improve the interplay between
the individual processing steps and thus the passage of the order through
production, the emphasis in the case of mass production is certainly on
increasing the degree of utilization of individual production lines. Due to
its modular structure, MES can be easily adapted to the specific production
environment and its task demands. Within the context of a planned MES
project it is therefore important to first ascertain what initial situation (pro-
duction structure and type) applies. The second step should be to find out
how production planning and control is currently being carried out and
how this could be expanded by MES functionalities.
Process capability
Alongside product quality many companies have recognized process quality
as offering further potential for greater operational efficiency in production.
In an examination of economic efficiency, the first step should be to define
which process-oriented objectives are to be achieved by the use of an MES.
Goals of this kind could be, for example, a reduction in the lead time, an
increase in machine utilization, an improvement in delivery reliability,
1.6 Use of an MES system in the company 35
MES. Due to the integration between the ERP system on the one hand and
the production level on the other, an MES is continuously acquiring data for
most process influences (orders, machines, tools, personnel, material, qual-
ity, etc.) in production. This means that hit lists (Pareto diagrams) relating to
the most frequent causes of problems and errors can be drawn up, process
times determined (setup times and processing times, waiting times and
downtimes, interruptions due to faults, etc.) and key data relating to process
and product quality calculated and displayed (for example, the OEE index,
machine utilization, degree of processing, scrap rate, etc.). In this way an
MES system supports improvement activities in all phases: define (defini-
tion of processes to be improved), measure (measure process data), analyze
(analysis of measured data) and control (check steps taken).
Fig. 1.15. Faster detection and exploitation of improvement potential with the aid
of an MES
from this strategy, process-oriented key data for production can be derived
on the basis of the measured variables supplied by the MES and can then
be communicated to employees as targets. The effect of this is that the
employees in production act in harmony with the interests of the company
and will also ponder on how their own key data could be improved. Even
CIP activities are supported by these key data since suggestions are pre-
dominantly made on the basis of key data and are then directly reflected in
the target figure. Thus knowing the current status and also the target fig-
ures is an immense motivation for the employees. At this point, in order to
demonstrate that MES can offer new possibilities even with familiar moti-
vation mechanisms, let us mention two examples which have long domi-
nated the manufacturing environment.
Group work
Since a process is in most cases affected by several people (for example,
the setting-up process by the machine operator, by the line engineer and by
the toolmaker) it is apparent that the same key data can be supplied to pre-
cisely those employees (the group) who can jointly influence the result of
the process. An MES supports this group work by providing all relevant
information in paperless form on so-called group i-point terminals.
Process capability means the ability to work without errors. Process capa-
bility can be measured as a spread within preset specification limits. The
process capability can be statistically expressed in numbers by sigma
which is a measure of the scatter. Purity grades can be assigned to the dif-
ferent sigma values. Today purity grades are expressed as ppm values
(parts per million non-conforming parts in a delivery).
Figure 2.1 contrasts the dependence between process variations – ex-
pressed as the scatter value sigma – and failures – expressed as the ppm value.
The really important thing to realize here is that when the process capability
is improved by just one sigma level, an improvement in economic efficiency
can be achieved by reducing failures by one order of magnitude, something
which is a long way from being achievable by making improvements in the
processing (machines, tools, methods, etc.) (Rehbehn and Zafer 2003).
Every unplanned fault in the process must be treated like an internal com-
plaint. All detected faults or errors must therefore be corrected perma-
nently, which means that the organization will improve with each fault that
has been detected and corrected. The long-term success of a company thus
depends on a culture of improvement which has to be permanently an-
chored within the organization.
While this systematic approach of permanent and rigorous failure proc-
essing has long been practiced in companies today in the field of quality
management, as regards the organization as a whole it is not yet state of
the art, not by a long way.
Systematic failure management calls for interplay between different de-
partments – it is a team activity: the foreman, the line engineer, the tool-
making, design or controlling departments make a contribution to process-
ing the failure report. As regards the systematics of this, the 8D report,
which was introduced by Ford, has now established itself as virtually the
standard and yet can still be adapted or varied to suit the requirements of
a particular company. What is important, however, is only that every de-
tected problem must be corrected in a guided manner. Any statistics which
Any failure, once it has been logged, can immediately generate a workflow
in the MES system in which the processing steps (as, for example, in the
8D report) are specified and the departments processing the steps are de-
fined. All actions to be carried out during the course of processing are then
input into a mask for action tracking and can thus be monitored transpar-
ently. Not until all processing steps have been ticked off can the “case” be
closed. Here the 8D report also requires a long-term prediction be made on
the basis of the long-term corrective action taken (training, revision of
drawings, checking of documents, and so on).
The workflow shown in Fig. 2.5 can be defined for different kinds of
failure handling. In addition, an MES can also automatically generate
be ensured that the efforts involved in their collaboration are actually di-
rected towards the process result.
Figure 2.6 shows by way of example how different corporate strategies
(in other words, the answer to the question: with which customers do we
want to stand out from the competition with which services?) can be for-
mulated in internal targets for the production department and then in objec-
tively measured quantities for the employees.
The targets and measured variables found and formulated for the value
generation level are then grouped together into operational target agree-
ments. These then form the logical foundations of a corresponding per-
formance-related reward payment system.
Figure 2.7 shows by way of example how different target and measured
quantities can be assigned to the unit or person responsible for the process.
Group work is present anywhere several employees can jointly influence
the process result.
Fig. 2.7. Assignment of measured variables to the unit or person responsible for
the process
In the factory any piece of metal (machine, tool, mesh pallet, produced
items, and so on) which does not have its accompanying data record is
regarded as scrap in accordance with the certification rules. To give an
idea of the sheer quantity of vouchers and the like required just for the
flow of material: delivery note and works certification from the supplier
(incoming goods); release decision, supplier appraisal by QS (quarantined
store), stock receipt list (incoming goods store), job papers, material issue
slips, time tickets, container marking slip, routing cards, batches, lot track-
ing, scrap report (production), externally processed order, container track-
ing (outlying departments), stores ledger card, label (storage facility), pick-
ing request, stock picking list (assembly/order picking), delivery note,
invoice, shipping papers, QA documents (shipping), etc.
The reason for the paper factory is to be found in the fact that the informa-
tion flows in the company are traditionally organized on a hierarchical
basis – that is, in effect vertical to the flow of material. This can be seen in
the organization chart which describes not only relationships of relative
subordination or superiority but also instruction and reporting paths. Every
box in the organization chart can be an individual or a function. The transi-
tion from one box to another is an interface and therefore in all cases
a media discontinuity as well. Interfaces are cost-intensive, highly time-
consuming and a quality risk with high error probability.
Each interface produces paper. Companies pay enormous amounts of
money for their paper production. The printing costs alone of larger com-
panies are today already estimated at around 5% of sales volume. Even the
“normal” passage of an order through production calls for a high level of
written output, starting with preparation of the works order and printing
hard copies of the job papers such as time tickets, material issue slips, trial
orders, scrap reports, schedule cards or routing cards.
Each document has an expensive career: it is created somewhere (usu-
ally where it is not needed), sent somewhere (to a foreman, for example),
from here it is distributed (to the machine operator), filled out by him,
returned, either glanced at or checked over and signed by the foreman,
collected together and sent back to the office/EDP department, input at one
time or another (EDP or MS Excel), and finally, once everyone has forgot-
ten all about its contents, evaluated. Copies are made of the evaluation,
these copies are sent out for distribution and finally everything is filed
away. This is a long chain of activities which ties up time and personnel.
52 2 MES for process capability
right information at the right time in the right place. In the new factory,
machine states, order progress, time scheduling, batch tracking, preventive
maintenance, tool management and statistical cost accounting are viewed
and presented as networked events. Instead of personnel organizations
based on the division of labor together with their traditional departments
and hierarchies, processes are made available in real time by networking all
information consumers. The right information at the right time in the right
place. This means that even traditional management structures such as hier-
archies and departments can be replaced by information structures which
all employees are networked and have access to the same information.
The concept of information networking has some other effects of deci-
sive importance:
The supervisor as a source of information for the employee now be-
comes less important.
The company’s knowledge base which is normally somewhere or other
in an unmonitored form (files, drawers, individuals) suddenly becomes
available.
Central planning
The order processing center is the central process owner. In a similar way
to the head of department who bears a responsibility for the department,
the process owner has the responsibility for the process results. In contrast
to the traditional vertical style of department classification, here the proc-
ess owner is biased horizontally by the process orientation – he thus forms
a part of the process chain (supply chain).
The order processing center as process owner thus has a responsibility
which ranges all the way from the external supplier via outlying units and
as far as the customer. It is furnished with the corresponding powers: it can
agree on dates with the supplier without involving the purchasing depart-
ment and is also the responsible contact for the customer with regard to
delivery dates without having to involve the Sales department.
On the basis of the information about bills of material, operation sheets,
order quantities and shelf inventories, the ERP system, as part of flow
scheduling, determines the basic dates (earliest and latest starting dates and
also the earliest and latest finishing dates) for each operation and these are
then passed on to the material planning level as requirements.
2.6 Summary
Literature
ISO/TS 16949 Technical Specifications, 2nd edn., 2002
Hendersen B (1974) Die Erfahrungskurve in der Unternehmensstrategie [The
experience curve in corporate strategy]. Herder & Herder, Frankfurt/Main
Kaplan R, Norton D (1997) Balanced Scorecard. Schäffer-Poeschel, Stuttgart
Kletti J, Brauckmann O (2004) Manufacturing Scorecard. Gabler, Wiesbaden
Rehbehn R, Zafer B (2003) Mit Six Sigma zu Business Excellence [With Six
Sigma to business excellence]. Siemens AG, Berlin and Munich
3 Added value from software
When you examine the value-adding processes in a company, what they all
have in common is that they are accompanied by information which on the
one hand documents the status of value generation and on the other hand
describes the performances which still have to be carried out. Information
is thus the real process driver and in this way controls operational se-
quences in the company. One obstacle to fluid processes is, however,
forms of organization which are oriented by performance which hinder and
slow down the processes on the basis of departmental boundaries. A fur-
ther obstacle to fluid processes are the innumerable media discontinuities
which cut up the information into large numbers of individual parts. This
makes it very difficult to track, control or direct these processes.
There is no doubt that overcoming a conventional, Tayloristically biased
organization structure is a management task which goes hand in hand with
considerable changes in the culture of the company. If information proc-
essing makes up the greater part of value generation, rationalization will
have to be applied to the information processes. That is the idea behind re-
engineering. Re-engineering aims at a restructuring of the information
processes with the objective of obtaining control over increasingly greater
demands with regard to quality, service, flexibility, costs, target dates and
delivery times. The decisive changes will take place in the future not in the
field of technology but rather in the definition of and control over informa-
tion processes. The prevention of media discontinuities is, on the other
hand, a task which can be carried out with the aid of technical tools. Here
the control and processing logic is mapped into the software. When inter-
nal and external data networks are used, the information can be passed on
in real time over departmental and corporate boundaries. It is of decisive
importance here that the systems involved actually understand each other.
The situation should not be permitted to arise whereby the information is
being exchanged digitally but nevertheless, due to a lack of or incompati-
bility in data interfaces, a human agent must actively step in as a mediator
of information.
These two aspects – modernization of the company organization by re-
engineering and optimization and software support for information flows –
must go hand in hand if a sustainable improvement in the value processes
is to be achieved. It cannot be pointed out too often in this regard that
3.1 The company as information system 63
The capital goods industry, which in our view includes in particular me-
chanical engineering, plant engineering and construction and electrical
engineering, is currently once again one of the cutting-edge branches of
industry. Following the lamentable failure of the “new economy”, people
are once again remembering traditional areas of strength. Strong growth in
sales, high export shares and technological leadership are some very pre-
sentable characteristics of this sector of industry. Despite what tend to be
unfavorable influences in the environment, such as unfavorable exchange
rates or higher costs for energy and raw materials, the industry’s compe-
tence in problem-solving is winning through in the international arena and
demand for the products is at record levels worldwide.
Notwithstanding this, this branch of industry is not resting on its laurels
at all. As the VDMA’s 2004 survey of trends indicates, as a way of im-
proving the competitive situation, action in the fields of “forced product
innovation” and “employee qualification” is currently very popular. To
gain competitiveness in a location with high wage levels, it is necessary on
the one hand to defend product leadership and on the other to use human
resources more and more efficiently. A decisive lever in accessing these
benefits is IT solutions. This is all the more important in the light of the
fact that a shortfall in qualified personnel for future years can already be
noted for this sector of industry. It is therefore a matter of automating rou-
tine tasks more extensively and giving complex operations support from
66 3 Added value from software
acquisition) has now become a dialog between the MES on one side and
these systems on the other.
The main aim of the close connection to inventory control is to provide
support for the detailed scheduling control of the production materials and
components which are available for the production orders. This brings one
of the most indispensable requirements for production into the planning
process, namely material availability.
In the past PPS was often incorrectly rendered in German as “Produk-
tionsplanung und Steuerung” (in other words, production planning and con-
trol). In fact, not giving the production scheduler a possibility of control is
the precise inability which is characteristic of PPS systems. The classic ap-
proach here is to plan against unlimited capacities and possibly even to use
starting dates which are already in the past. The MES can deploy its strong
points here of backlog-free planning on the basis of existing capacities and
the current progress of production being reported back in real time. On this
basis PPS can then release customer orders on hand to production, doing so
on a rolling basis; the systems run in synchrony and supplement each other.
Despite the very respectable benefits of MES this concept is still far from
winning through in the investment goods industry. In some cases there is
still a great deal of skepticism as to whether MES is just “old wine in new
68 3 Added value from software
bottles” or whether it might be better just to wait and see, until MES has
established itself over a broad front.
This skeptical or dilatory attitude is primarily rooted in some negative
experiences in the past. As early as 20 years ago the concept of integration
and increased use of computers was taken up under the keyword CIM and
presented as having a very sound theoretical basis. However, the limited
performance of the hardware infrastructure of the time as well as the lack
of possibilities for a powerful implementation of the concept using soft-
ware tools meant that only slow progress was possible. Thanks to produc-
tion data acquisition (PDA) and machine data collection (MDC) on data
collection terminals specially developed for this, the existing graphic pro-
duction control station using planning tables in the scheduling department
or foreman’s office has been replaced by electronic displays of the same
information. In the “advanced planning and scheduling” (APS) approach
during the mid-1990s an attempt was made to close the gap which PPS
systems had left with the planning philosophies of MRP and MRP II. This
should now have put an end to the situation whereby periods in the past
were accorded planning relevance with regard to production steps not as
yet carried out. Nevertheless even the APS method could not get beyond
being simply a more refined planning attempt to close the control loop
between ACTUAL and TARGET.
With MES the integration of all information relevant to production – in
other words, to the areas of personnel, material resources and production
resources – has now been completed. Data about available personnel re-
sources with qualification profiles, available raw materials and compo-
nents, and also the free machine capacities including the tools and equip-
ment required, all flow into the MES. At the same time, manufacturing
progress is reported back continuously to the planning system thereby
closing the control loop of production control in such a way as to make
iterative replanning in production possible on this basis.
In retrospect, MES, like its predecessors, has run through a development
curve typical of new technologies which corresponds to Gartner’s hype
cycle. If the idea of the CIM is taken as the starting point, with MES we
have now reached the “slope of enlightenment”. A growing number of
systems are available on the market which are technically mature enough
for practical service and whose utility value has been demonstrated by
concrete implementations.
It does therefore appear very likely that in the foreseeable future MES
will play a considerable role within the context of production organization
and control and will also reach the plateau of the application level and
widespread industrial application. Ultimately potential users will have to
decide whether MES will prevail or succumb to its own hype.
3.2 MES in the capital goods industry 69
Fig. 3.4. Market growth for the process industry (source: ARC)
3.3 Preparations for MES-implementation 71
This far-reaching change affects the entire organization and it must there-
fore be borne by all employees.
Unlike the traditional procedure used with changes, which were imple-
mented by the top-down method, here the process owners who are directly
affected should be addressed. Again and again, on-the-spot workshops
have demonstrated that the workers as a rule are the ones who point out
recurring deficiencies in the organization. In the past they never had a sys-
tem to express what these negative situations mean in terms of time and
money, they never could quantify them or even eliminate them. Here the
lost potential for bottom-up improvement is comparatively enormous: fail-
ure to meet scheduled production order lead times and delivery dates,
“firefighting” responses, and immense sales and administration costs are
examples of typical types of waste.
Accordingly, this project phase begins by including all those individuals
involved in the process. Any inequality in knowledge regarding the MES
project will create aggression, mistrust and arrogance and uncontrollable
ancillary hierarchies will arise. Process responsibility must therefore be
jointly borne by the following departments in particular: controlling, data
processing, sales, production planning, purchasing, engineering, produc-
tion, quality management and IT. In addition, the works council (union
representatives) should already be included in this early project stage in
order to counteract possible obstruction right from the start. In this connec-
tion it must be made clear that MES is not about surveillance of the work-
force but is rather a way of optimizing production processes. It is also
beneficial if it can be demonstrated that the workers are also direct partici-
pants in the successful implementation of the project by the fact that, say,
observance of deadlines and successfully achieved quality will be posi-
tively reflected in their wage packets.
Process descriptions, such as will already have been prepared during the
course of certification, are a useful resource here. In this phase the re-
quirements of the departments or fields of responsibility involved in the
process are drawn up in detail in conjunction with the employees.
benefits (which in this phase will still be very approximate), a first feasibil-
ity study and a rough project plan should all be constituent parts of the
information provided to the persons with decision-making responsibility.
The aim of this first project step is to obtain a project order including
a budget and executive support from top management, ideally
a “godparent” is appointed as responsible for the project.
The final system tuning is based on the key data obtained from systematic
process development. Requirements might, for example, include:
Integration of the operational level (controls)
Forms of employee remuneration
Process time optimizations
Implementation of quality assurance
Interface requirements
Special aspects of production technology
Globalization (browser capability)
and so on
The predefined project objectives can now be compared with MES solu-
tions available on the market. For this purpose the VDMA offers its mem-
bers, for example, specific reference lists. Considering the complexity of
what MES solutions are available, it may be worth recommending getting
support from a consultancy which has demonstrably proved itself to be
a successful partner in the selection of this kind of corporate software. The
corresponding references should be helpful here in the evaluative process.
Possible suppliers will now need to be appraised on the basis of what is
required.
In addition to the usual cost-benefit aspects, their offers should also be
judged on the basis of “soft” factors such as:
Financial standing. The vendor company should also supply not only
documented evidence of its economic strength but also a convincing
business strategy.
The technical future potential of the solution and development strategy
over the years ahead must be recognizable and transparent.
Organizational capabilities and permanent availability are features which
should not be neglected and which reveal themselves in after-sales
services, software care and maintenance (update and release policies) or
project know-how.
3.3 Preparations for MES-implementation 75
Finally, care should also be taken that the company size of both user and
supplier are comparable. It can be assumed with the mid-sized software
company that it understands the daily problems experienced by the mid-
sized manufacturing company. The two or three system suppliers which
best meet requirements are now asked to submit their product specifica-
tions and also a detailed implementation plan. In addition, the suitability
of the systems should be checked in workshops in which processes are
simulated using real data from the company. At the end of this, a con-
tract will be awarded to one of the final potential suppliers and work can
start on the practical implementation.
The implementation plan forms the foundation for the introduction of the
MES system. It specifies the various stages in the introduction process and
the sequence of the organizational units into which the system is to be
successively introduced. It has proved helpful to introduce systems of this
kind gradually and not in one fell swoop. Here it makes sense, correspond-
ing to the 80:20 rule, to begin where the greatest potential for rationaliza-
tion is located and where there is the greatest possibility of including high-
tech machines and installations. Rapid, conspicuous successes are good for
the image of the project and give the impetus needed for full-coverage
implementation. To prevent set-backs from occurring, the real-time opera-
tion of the system must be thoroughly prepared in advance. In addition to
the necessary user training, what is of prime importance here is the seam-
less and consistent availability of the data which the MES system needs.
Here, too, the old rule still applies: garbage in, garbage out. Problems
which occur during the introduction phase must be documented and pre-
cisely investigated. The actions taken to correct faults must be anchored in
the introduction process in such a way that they can also be used for future
fault prevention. Throughout the introduction phase, compliance with the
implementation plan must be monitored not only as regards scheduled
milestones but also as regards deviations from target and corrected where
necessary. Right up until the end of the introduction phase, reports will be
prepared at defined intervals regarding project progress and submitted to
those responsible in general management. Once the introduction program
has been completed in accordance with the implementation plan, the pro-
ject will be formally concluded. Among other things, this means that the
costs arising in subsequent periods will be clearly fenced off and that, for
example, further services on the part of the supplier will either concern
new projects or should be posted as recurring costs.
76 3 Added value from software
In recent years a widespread trend towards going digital has been notice-
able in classic technologies. Familiar examples of this include digital tele-
vision, digital telecommunications and digital photography. What all of
these developments have in common is that today digital technologies are
being used instead of analog signal processing and transmission. On the
basis of modern standardized information and communications technology
it is possible on the one hand to develop more powerful and more flexible
products offering innovative services but also on the other hand to reduce
3.4 Innovative technologies in the MES environment 77
With the digital factory, the main point of interest is not the actual working
manufacturing plant but rather the ability of production to change and its
flexibility. It is not only full-scale production which is continually faced
with the task of replanning factories in response to new products, means of
production or bottlenecks or of optimizing individual production proc-
esses. The digital factory now aims at securing an entirely digital planning
process for production and factory including methodical and computer-
based support. In this connection a large number of software tools have
now appeared which are used primarily in production planning and factory
design. The software tools create images of the machines and products
together with their complete structures, logistical sequences and techno-
logical processes, going down into the smallest detail. They are then tested
on a virtual basis and where applicable improved. What emerges is a well-
grounded digital model of the factory, before it is even built or converted.
Today the digital factory offers the greatest potential for companies with
long planning cycles or complex production processes. It is therefore no
wonder that automotive manufacturers in particular are massively pushing
forward the deployment of these technologies and are almost in a state of
78 3 Added value from software
Real-time data are reported with minimum time lag for updating ERP
planning
Online provision of collected real-time data for simulation purposes in
the digital factory
Direct processing of 3D product data in production equipment such as
controllers (technology-dependent)
Even if these approaches are still a long way from reality and may pos-
sibly be discarded as wishful thinking, they do nevertheless show what
problems and what goals still have to be dealt with. The basic technologies
for implementing these possible solutions in many cases already exist.
Furthermore, intensive work is going on to get these technologies to func-
tion even better together and to reduce existing media discontinuities and
incompatibilities. Further development of the system landscape and its
practical use will however depend to a considerable extent on how pre-
pared companies are to invest – even more strongly than in the past – in
efficient and flexible information processing in production.
We are firmly convinced that even today a systematic use of software in
production can deliver considerable added value as regards transparency,
flexibility and productivity. Opening up this potential would greatly profit
not only the manufacturing companies but also Germany itself as a produc-
tion location.
4 MES: the new class of IT applications
As before, in many production facilities today data are still sent to pro-
duction by the conventional, paper-based method. Time tickets and pro-
duction papers are printed out directly from the ERP/PPS system, sorted
manually and distributed to the relevant foreman’s offices. This was not
particularly disadvantageous in its effect in those days when production
planning was characterized by fairly long change cycles. Today there is in
many cases a time lag of several days between printing the papers for a job
and when work on it actually starts and this is increasingly becoming
a problem: short-term reactions to the changes (target dates, delivery quan-
tity, quality, and so on) which today’s customers demand of their suppliers
as a matter of course have to be updated by hand on the already printed
paperwork or the documents have to be entirely redone. The resulting
problems which arise should be familiar enough, not to speak of the enor-
mous organizational outlay.
With its systematic orientation to the requirements of those employees
working in the production front line, with the MES systems there arises
a new class of IT-supported applications which go beyond the classic ap-
proaches of ERP or PPS systems or of automation technology, which permit
new ways of looking at things and which provide a tool tailored to the actual
practice experienced by workers, foremen, maintenance engineers, produc-
tion schedulers and QS officers when they carry out their daily duties.
ERP/PPS systems
A consequence of the fact that manual entries on time tickets and routing
cards only become available in the ERP/PPS system with a time lag fre-
quently of several days is that the following rule will necessarily apply: the
closer to real time the information must be, the less the ERP/PPS system
represents a genuine tool for the control of production. Information re-
quired often at very short notice regarding order progress – and thus the
delivery date as well – will, for example, not usually be available until the
entire order has been completed. Due to the fact that the information is
posted retroactively, information about material and inventory stocks (raw
4.2 The current situation in the manufacturing company 83
Automation technology
The primary task of automation equipment is to regulate or control instal-
lations, processes and machines on the technical level. During recent years
systems of this kind have however developed more and more into an in-
formation medium as well. As a rule it is not a problem for them to ac-
quire, store and evaluate process values or other technical data such as, for
example, machine faults. Where a shortfall can be detected when produc-
tion processes are considered in their entirety is that they have no relation-
ship to planning or logistical data. Although the foreman or production
scheduler can read off the technical state of the machine directly, the rela-
tionship to the corresponding order whose manufacturing progress is af-
fected by the fault has to be established manually in a roundabout fashion.
Nor is the machine control unit in most cases aware of other resources
involved in production, such as tools, the material or even the personnel.
Quality systems
Logically enough, quality assurance systems focus on all events which
have to do with the subject of quality. Although there is in fact a direct
84 4 MES: the new class of IT applications
To find a way out of the deficiencies described above, many companies are
setting up facilities in addition to the systems mentioned with whose help
urgently required information is obtained about the current event or plan-
ning activities supported.
4.2 The current situation in the manufacturing company 85
Progress chasers
As has been stated in the preceding chapters, without a PDA or MES sys-
tem no current information about order progress will be available and for
this reason no precise statements can be made “at the touch of a button”
about delivery dates and quantities. But since customers demand concrete
information, in many companies the position of “progress chaser” has been
created. His task is to gather all the necessary information about customer
orders by walking the shop floor up and down. This involves a lot of per-
sonnel time commitment and also means time delays caused, for example,
by searching for parts.
Clock cards
Even today clock cards are still used in many companies for documenting
the employees’ clocking-in and clocking-out times and from these working
86 4 MES: the new class of IT applications
out the hours they have worked as a basis for wage calculations. This in-
volves a great deal of outlay on administration and materials. Here too
additional labor capacities are required to calculate times and to input them
into the wages and salaries system. In addition, an overview of which em-
ployees are present and absent is only available locally at the time clock.
The systems and tools described above are in most cases island solutions and
offer no way of exchanging data with other systems or if so only to a limited
extent. The necessary all-round view is not however possible without an
exchange of data or a comparison of data. Let us provide a few examples:
To ensure gapless registration of productive times, the employees’ at-
tendance times are compared with the productive times from PDA. This
comparison is absolutely essential if performance-based or incentive
payments are made.
In short-term manpower planning the foreman on the one hand needs
the information from time-off planning and staff work time logging
(who is actually at work?) . On the other hand, the job load which has to
be managed must of course be available as a result of detailed planning
in order to make it possible to determine personnel requirements.
Data must be brought together from different areas and systems when an
explicit POP (proof of product) is required and when it must be docu-
mented which employee made which part using which tool on which
machine under what process conditions and using which batch of raw
materials.
Fig. 4.1. The integrated production database as a necessary condition of the “all-
round view” in production
88 4 MES: the new class of IT applications
tags, and so on) for transferring the saved data renders superfluous the
expensive and potentially error-riddled method of typing the data in manu-
ally. Mature MES systems also offer additional ways of making things
easier such as data acquisition logic units which considerably reduce the
time and effort involved in inputting data. Some relevant examples:
In the case of orders whose processing times extend over several days,
when the employee clocks off at the end of his shift he “pauses” his cur-
rent job only to resume it automatically when he clocks back on again
the next morning. In this way the order no longer needs to be repeatedly
suspended and resumed manually.
The time difference between the completion signal for an operation
forming part of a multistage order and when the successor is logged on
is automatically interpreted by the MES as transfer time or burden time.
Separate postings are not required here.
Several events of short processing duration are simultaneously logged
on and off at a PDA terminal as so-called collective operations. This
disposes of problematic inputting and travel times. The MES automati-
cally posts a proportional time for the individual events on the basis of
configurable rules.
for both their current and also their future states, with no need for data entry.
This means that imminent conflicts can be detected in advance and corrected.
Maintenance
Graphical machine park with an up-to-date display of machine statuses
(for example, even including a projector in the shop)
Maintenance calendar for machines and tools
Statistics for cause of problems, with configurable levels of detail
Fault class evaluations
Graphic plots (profiles) of key data important to maintenance (curve
plotted for degree of utilization, machine cycle, and so on)
Statistics relating to problem causes and idle-time statistics as shown in
Fig. 4.5 make it possible for the person in charge (group, foreman, mainte-
nance engineer, and so on) to specifically track down what is causing prob-
lems in machines and installations.
Quality department
Automatic generation of inspection orders on the basis of stored inspec-
tion and test plans
Online counting of parts produced and automatic monitoring of random
sampling frequencies on the basis of an integrated terminal with PDA
and SPC functions
4.3 The situation as it ought to be 93
If batch and lot information is also registered in parallel with PDA mes-
sages, a product history record (batch tree) will be automatically created
for the manufacturing events. Batch and lot documentation is becoming
more and more important, particularly in the light of the requirements of
modern certification rules (ISO 9001/TS 16949). In general it is true to say
that a very large number of auditing requirements cannot be cost-
effectively solved today without an integrated MES system.
Personnel department
Up-to-date attendance and absence lists.
Delegation of time-consuming routine activities (approvals of vacation
applications, reception of notifications of sickness, planning relating to
non-productive time) to the foreman and thus to the place where the in-
formation usually comes in directly or where it needs to be processed
anyway.
Comparison lists which provide an automatic comparison of attendance
times and productive times.
4.3 The situation as it ought to be 95
Literature
Kletti J, Brauckmann O (2004) Manufacturing Scorecard – Prozesse effizienter
gestalten, mehr Kundennähe erreichen – mit vielen Praxisbeispielen [The
manufacturing scorecard: designing processes more efficiently, achieving
greater customer orientation, with many practical examples], Gabler, Wies-
baden
5 Building an MES system
The demands made of a modern MES system mean that these systems
must be given an appropriate structure. Island solutions or even classic
PDA systems are biased towards being able to run several monolithic
software modules in parallel on one integration platform. Users have al-
ways wanted these monolithic modules to be able to communicate with
each other. Unfortunately the reality was often different, such as, for ex-
ample, the fact that in one earlier PDA system the shift performance of the
machine and the number of parts produced for that operation had to be
input in two separate dialogs at the end of the shift.
One of the most important reasons for these problems was the demand of
the market for a standard software system. Instead of requiring individual
programming and thereby making it necessary to carry out a corresponding
analysis of requirements, these standard products promised the user a fast
and inexpensive way to reach his goal. The limits of these solutions are
easy to see from the example cited: mutual integration of these products
only occurred at precisely the place where it was explicitly planned. Should
this integration not have originally been deemed necessary, it would not
then be available when actually needed and would thus have to be pur-
chased later on, and in some cases at considerable expense.
In recent years manufacturers of MES solutions have been engaged very
intensively on breaking through the limits of existing software architec-
tures. The keywords “process mapping”, “business logic” and “process
workflow” have in the meantime become familiar to every decision-maker
and to every consultant in the MES field. Here an analysis of the concepts
very rapidly reveals that in many cases they are understood differently. In
fact behind the term MES and the corresponding concept is a modern soft-
ware architecture which should basically cover the following requirements:
Complete mapping of all requirements beneath an ERP/PPS system (so-
called horizontal integration)
Availability as standard software with the following properties:
Modular software structure
Expandable in accordance with the requirements of the user based on
current standards
100 5 Building an MES system
The architecture of modern MES systems is also oriented like other busi-
ness solutions by the so-called “business service architecture” or “enter-
prise service architecture” (ESA for short). An important reason for select-
ing this architecture is that during the life cycle of an MES system new
demands are continually arising which need to be implemented in a virtu-
ally never ending process.
The individual layers of the architecture of a modern MES system and
their special features are explained in the following sections.
In addition to ensuring the delivery of predominantly technical proper-
ties, both the architecture and the basic functions of an MES system have
a special importance. Provided that both the architecture and also the basic
functions are properly defined and implemented and the basic functions
are oriented to the standards usual in the market, this will form the best
conditions for an open, expandable and future-proof system.
5.1 Software architecture of an MES system 101
This is why many proprietary systems suffer from the lack of a global ar-
chitecture or from the absence of any way of allowing new technologies to
feed in rapidly and smoothly within the basic functions without unwanted
effects on the applications themselves and thereby constituting an IT risk.
1
OLTP is an acronym for online transaction protocol and is used here as
a synonym for the real-time database section of an MES system
5.1 Software architecture of an MES system 103
The data layer is that part of the MES application which is responsible for
the definition of the database structures as well as for the data stored in them
and thus looks after the so-called persistence of the data. Every MES prod-
uct possesses the data model corresponding to one version of a product.
Today this data model is normally stored in relational database systems and
the corresponding data processed by means of SQL (structured query lan-
guage).
The necessity of defining a data layer reveals itself in the overall view by
the way products are mapped in the architecture of a modern MES system.
It can be seen from the diagram above that the products in an MES sys-
tem are spread over three layers of the system architecture. From this
model a rule can be derived in the form that changes in or expansions of
a product whenever possible take place only in one layer. This rule ensures
stability and reduces the effort required to implement changes. The change
itself takes place precisely in the layer which is responsible for the change.
Here the data layer handles the task of ensuring that the data for an MES
product based on the underlying database system can not only be written
reliably and permanently but also read again. The data layer defines the
necessary tables and fields in the database system. All changes, modifica-
tions and product expansions relating to the persistence of data will thus
take place in this layer. Other examples of intervention in the data model
104 5 Building an MES system
The application layer depends on the data layer and makes functionality
available to the process mapping. The application layer covers the follow-
ing important requirements:
The application layer provides the objects and corresponding methods
for creating the business logic in the process mapping layer.
5.1 Software architecture of an MES system 105
What is meant at this point by an object is, for example, “Machine 3523
with associated data” or “Operation 7330022 010 with associated data”.
A method means the functions by which the data of the object can be
processed or functions which trigger actions for the object, such as log-
ging someone onto a machine, for example.
The application layer supplies its objects and methods irrespective of the
data model. This procedure ensures that if there are changes in the un-
derlying data structures the application layer will look after the neces-
sary compatibility and the objects and methods will behave in their
normal way. In the case of new functions, the application layer will ex-
plicitly make new objects and new methods available for them.
The demands made of the application layer show clearly that this layer
has the important job of getting necessary technical modifications under
control so that the process mapping can function as normal. Provided it
has been correctly implemented, the architecture of an MES system will
thus ensure that changes do not negatively impact already defined proc-
esses.
The process mapping has the job of reproducing the actual business logic
on the basis of the methods and objects of the application layer. One syno-
nym for the term business logic is enterprise logic.
Via interfaces or graphical interfaces the process mapping receives mes-
sages including the corresponding data which essentially are then proc-
essed via “if-then” conditions and the use of the objects and methods of the
application layer. The process mapping thus contains the actual logic of an
application or of a product and in addition makes use of the underlying
layers. One important characteristic of the process mapping is that the ob-
jects and methods of all products are at its disposal. This means that sev-
eral products can be “woven” together in the process mapping without any
problem, something monolithic products do not permit.
This advantage becomes considerably greater if further products are to
be added at a later date. If necessary, the methods of the new products will
simply be incorporated into the existing process mappings. It should now
be clear that these possibilities permit complete horizontal integration and
interweaving of the applications, something which can also be carried out
gradually.
A further advantage of the process mapping is the high degree of compati-
bility with future application releases which this layer provides. The under-
lying layers ensure compatibility in the event of revisions and modifications
106 5 Building an MES system
such as product upgrades, for example, so that the process mapping created
is not affected.
For the if-then relationships, the classic configuration settings can be
used as before. These are supplied to the process mapping from the appli-
cation layer by means of the corresponding methods. The if-then condi-
tions we have mentioned can, however, also be represented graphically:
the result is the so-called workflows. The advantage of a graphical repre-
sentation is that on the one hand these workflows offer clarity and describe
process flows in a readily comprehensible manner while on the other hand
there is also the possibility of creating these workflows in electronic form
and then generating the process mapping from them.
Fig. 5.3. Planning depths with monolithic architecture and with Enterprise Service
Architecture
so-called native drivers from the database manufacturers but also ODBC
or JDBC. The reasons why people wonder about this are obvious since
definitions of the database structures are available and one would expect
that rapid implementation would be possible. As has been stated in the
previous section on the data layer, the data layer belongs to the innermost
part of an MES system and thus could well be a poor base on which to
install interfaces. Database changes, possibly conversion of the database
system and a complete circumvention of the application layer and of the
process mapping, are the clear arguments against an interface of this kind.
File-based interfaces
Although somewhat old fashioned from the technical point of view, as far
as the applications are concerned file-based interfaces still do the job they
should do. File-based interfaces can be set up on the process mapping and
will thus in principle be compatible with future releases. Further advan-
tages are the simplicity of data exchange both in the development stage
and also in subsequent application, the ease with which contents can be
monitored and also the simple possibility of sending processed files to
storage for monitoring purposes. Disadvantages are found in the lack of an
online capability with file-based interfaces since files need to be retrieved
on a cyclic basis. For this reason one preferred use for file-based interfaces
110 5 Building an MES system
Web services
Currently everyone in the IT field is talking about web services as a pos-
sible cure for a large number of existing inadequacies in software systems.
The essential properties of web services are:
Standardization
Network or internet-based data exchange
Platform-independent structure
Online capability
Ease of expandability
These properties indicate that web services supply all of the require-
ments needed for the tasks which system-independent communication has
to perform. Due to the standardization implemented by the World-Wide
Web consortium W3C, web services offer the necessary long-term stability
and goal-oriented development required for an industrial standard. Web
services in principle support online inquiries, which means that ad-hoc
inquiries in other systems are technically feasible. The way things look
today, web services seem like becoming in the medium term the standard
technology for data exchange between ERP/PPS and MES systems.
EDI
This interface for the exchange of structured business data is mentioned
only for the sake of completeness. EDI (electronic data interchange) has not
yet played any major role in communication between ERP/PPS and MES.
Starting out from the architecture of an MES system, all interfaces use the
process mapping to call the defined workflows together with the corre-
sponding data, doing so via the messages which are available (cf. Fig. 5.5).
On the basis of this definition an interface implemented in this way offers
the following advantages:
Interfaces thus use the business logic defined
Even for interfaces there are ways of intervening in the sequences of the
workflows on the level of the process mapping
In this case interfaces offer compatibility with future software releases
With MES systems the user interfaces and data collection systems are
normally based on the process mapping. This makes it possible for the
MES system to start an operation, for example, at a data collection device
and finish it at an information workstation. If the manufacturer of the MES
system does not hide the messages in the direction of the process mapping
and makes this information available to his customers or partners, new
possibilities will then become available on this level regarding how the
MES system can be used. The use of these messages is particularly suit-
able for linking existing systems with a certain intelligence or their own
processing capability to an MES system and thereby making a horizontal
integration possible. If this idea is followed through to its logical conclu-
sion, the MES system will become an integration platform and existing
island solutions will not need to be retired but may instead stay on as spe-
cialized data collectors which pass their data on to the MES system.
system receives from the production facilities are basically the machine
cycle, counting signals, operating signals, machine status, measured values
and process data.
The idea behind these connections is, First, to realize a high level of
automation and thus to increase economic efficiency and reduce the inci-
dence of wrong operation. On the other hand, requirements concern the
attainment and monitoring of a specified quality in the finished product
and also the quality and monitoring of the production process itself.
Proprietary interfaces
There is a large number of interfaces with production facilities and listing
them all here would be beyond the scope of this book. This diversity is
however very much a problem for MES manufacturers and customers
since due to the lack of relevant standards every machine manufacturer up
until a few years ago and in some cases even today is forced to develop his
own, proprietary controllers and protocols with the result that connecting
up a varied machine park often turned out expensive for the user as well as
complicated. In the meantime some MES manufacturers have, as a result
of years of project experience, acquired the knowledge required for con-
necting up the most varied machines and controllers which means that
5.2 Interfaces of an MES system 113
OPC
By OPC (OLE for process control) is meant a Windows-based interface for
data exchange between two systems. This interface was specially devel-
oped for machine interfacing and has the advantage that, similarly to the
case of web services, a consortium (the OPC Foundation) looks after inter-
face definition and compliance. Further advantages of the OPC interface
technology include:
Getting rid of manufacturer-dependency in hardware and software;
Simplicity in the configuration of the information to be exchanged;
Network capability;
OPC permits parallel access to the data provided by the OPC server.
Euromap 63
Euromap 63 is a standardized interface for data exchange with injection-
molding machines which was defined by the European Committee of Ma-
chine Manufacturers. The Euromap interface has the following properties:
Euromap 63 specializes in data exchange with injection-molding ma-
chines;
Euromap 63 is not bound to a particular platform. Euromap-capability is
rather a property of the controller of the injection-molding machine.
Due to the wide variety of controllers used by the machine manufactur-
ers as also to the fact that the contents of the interface are freely definable
by the machine manufacturers, their actual implementation will vary from
manufacturer to manufacturer. The degree of abstraction will not therefore
be as good as with OPC although it does appear that due to the spread of
Euromap 63 the injection-molding field can count its machines amongst
those most frequently connected to MES systems.
114 5 Building an MES system
One fundamental feature of MES systems is their user interfaces. The most
important areas of application include, on the one hand, specialized inter-
faces for use in production. On the other hand, an effective configuration of
the system should be possible, as also a clear presentation of the data col-
lected. The section will deal with the technical possibilities and in particular
also with the benefits which MES systems can offer users at this point.
Local client
This technology exists in several forms, ranging from the simple cli-
ent/server system to distributed applications in which part of the applica-
tion is no longer executed in the client.
The advantages of this solution:
There is good exploitation of local resources;
Communication only occurs in relation to data exchange;
Complex applications can be realized without any problem.
The disadvantages of this solution:
High administrative cost;
High costs per client.
Thin client
In contrast to the local client, with a thin-client solution only a kind of
interpreter is used in the local workplace computer. Both the interface and
the data are first sent to the client where they then together define the ap-
plication. By means of local data storage strategies at the client end, long-
ish waiting times as the data are loaded are reduced.
The advantages of this solution:
Lower administrative cost;
Low costs per client.
The disadvantages of this solution:
Complex applications take a lot of time and effort to set up;
High requirements as regards the LAN infrastructure;
Limited possibilities in the graphical representation of technical situa-
tions.
5.3 User interfaces of an MES system 115
Smart clients
Microsoft is currently publicizing its new development framework .NET.
With this development framework so-called smart clients can be created.
During the development process the developer specifies which parts will
run locally and which parts will run on the server, which means that the
applications appear to be a mixture of local client and thin client. Another
outstanding feature of smart clients is that no separate installation routines
are now required: instead, administering these systems is made easier by
software distribution by copy command.
In many cases the operating system Microsoft Windows in its current ver-
sion of Windows XP is used as a platform for the fields of configuration,
monitoring and reporting and is regarded as industrial standard. As regards
the technology for the user interface, all of the possibilities we have men-
tioned are candidates. If a correct selection of technology is to be made,
the benefits of the application should stand in the foreground. There is no
doubt that web solutions will suffice for information workstations and
simple controlling. On the other hand, even in the very near future, a local
client will be required by complex applications such as control stations,
planning modules or applications with special requirements regarding ef-
fective working.
The user interface of an MES should have the following important
properties:
116 5 Building an MES system
5.4 Outlook
While workplaces in the office have been equipped with PCs for the last
twenty years we are now experiencing the systematic continuation of this
trend in the field of production. The production worker’s office desk
comes into existence at the information point in production.
In contrast to the way computers are used in management where the
emphasis is on word processing, spreadsheets and ERP systems, the pro-
duction worker uses programs tailored to production-related data handling.
The MES system is the information and data collection system for
manufacturing and production. The very latest status information about
orders, machines, tools, materials and personnel is brought together here
and prepared appropriately for the relevant applications. MRP controllers,
production schedulers, logisticians, production foremen and the workers
themselves use the online information from the MES system and can make
the right decisions for the particular situation when production processes
do not run as planned. Optimum production management was not possible
until the arrival of MES systems.
The ERP system looks at production through a telescope as it were. It
plans and recalculates production sequences on the basis of production
status messages from the MES system.
Process computers displaying visualizations are island solutions opti-
mally tailored to the process in question. From the point of view of pro-
duction management this is like looking through a microscope. The MES
system is the connecting link between the ERP level and the production
process. All of the data which allow production management to make the
best decisions are brought together here.
deployed in a targeted manner and focuses on the data which are important
for the company in question. The present treatment can be divided into the
three central topics:
MES data analysis
The task of data analysis stands at the beginning of an MES project. In
many cases the typical MES data entry objects can be derived from the
user’s production process or the sector of industry. The result is a listing
of the data entry objects to serve as the basis for the database of the
MES system.
Data acquisition functionality
The second area of focus in MES requirements are those relating to an
optimally tuned data acquisition functionality. What degree of automa-
tion can be implemented in data acquisition? Which data will need to be
entered manually? At this point it is decided which data acquisition
functions can best be integrated into the existing production sequences.
Information display and preparation of analyses
MES users are interested in different MES data entry objects at different
times in different cumulations and differently aggregated presentations.
The MES system must offer information editing functions to every user
and pass collected information onwards via interfaces.
The relationships between data acquisition functionality and the analy-
ses are shown in the MES model. Data are registered at the data collection
terminal by means of the relevant acquisition functions for the data entry
objects in question and taking plausibility checks into consideration.
The MES system administers the data in a database which serves as
a data archive for the overviews and analyses.
The data acquisition functionality works in dependence on planning in-
puts relating to the corresponding reference variables – for example, re-
quirements for order and article. The personnel steer the data acquisition
dialogs, making use of selection lists or making manual inputs. Context-
sensitive plausibility checks are made here against the MES database.
In some cases the process interfaces with machine or weighing equip-
ment controllers are triggered by manual inputs. Current and objective data
are taken directly from the process and evaluated in order to obtain a de-
scription of production progress.
The decisive advantage which MES has over traditional data collection
systems such as written records (which are still used even now) is that the
time dimension in value generation can for the first time also be consid-
ered and registered. In the light of the fact that an overwhelming majority
of resources represent potentials which are used in a manner proportional
6.3 Data analysis: information in an MES system 121
The modern data acquisition terminal is integrated into the corporate net-
work (intranet) and enjoys full access to those company datapools relevant
to production. The data acquisition client is therefore a powerful tool and,
since it communicates with the peripheral device which has been tailored
to its environment, is also a regular “factotum”. The central task of the
MES is to focus ergonomically on the major data objects and to handle the
data ergonomically.
Anyone planning to introduce an MES system must first be clear about
which data objects he is going to set his data acquisition up on.
The relevant data model used for the MES system will be guided by the
sector of industry and the production processes. Depending on the type of
use, other data entry objects will be of interest: the plant and equipment
manufacturer will be interested in time data and hardly at all in quantities
while the repetitive manufacturer regards process speed at the machine as
the essential factor. Quality inspections, on the other hand, will have equal
importance for both of these target groups.
122 6 Integrated production management with MES
From the ERP system the MES system receives input requirements re-
garding the order and the resources scheduled for the production process.
These data are administered in corresponding inventory charts. The MES
system does however also have MES-specific configuration data which are
administered locally in the MES system. The MES system derives the re-
quirements applicable to the production processes from order inputs and
from the configurations.
Status signals from the production process are assigned to the MES data
entry objects. The data are compared with the target requirements and sup-
port production management. The MES system passes cumulative results
on to the ERP system.
Decisions as to how long data will remain in the MES system are made
for each data entry object as also regarding incorporation in the MES data
model, the origin of the master data, use and properties within the MES
system, and feedback to the ERP world.
6.4.1 Order/operation
An order originates in the ERP world and with its plan requirements de-
termines the targets for the production process. At the same time it serves
as a cost collector for recording services performed (times) and quantities
produced. For this reason the order represents the backbone of data acqui-
sition and is thus the classic data entry object.
Anyone in the field of data acquisition talking about the order in most
cases means the operation, the operating sequence or the activity. The op-
eration includes all information which according to the work plan relates to
the corresponding work center and to the process step within the order.
The work operation transports production information to the data acqui-
sition station. This data includes master data from the work plan (standard
speed, planned work center, planned set-up time, planned running time,
work instructions) and from the material master (bill of materials informa-
tion, required quantities, drawings) as well as the descriptive data for the
order (such as target date and target quantity, and possibly customer in-
formation, printed text for labels, and so on). The work operation also de-
termines resource requirements, which in production are assigned and
plausibility checked either implicitly or by manual inputs as an MES sig-
naling object.
At the same time the work operation receives information from the pro-
duction process about the progress of production and displays this at the
data acquisition station, transfers information into the MES database and
collects feedback data for the ERP system.
In addition to pure production orders, an MES also processes reworking
orders, project orders, overhead cost orders and inspection orders, which
may very well be handled differently within the data acquisition process.
6.4.2 Material
Data acquisition may relate not only to those materials which flow into the
production process but also to the material produced. In the case of incoming
materials, in most cases plausibility checks are carried out against the bill of
124 6 Integrated production management with MES
Resources which are required for carrying out the production process and
which are simultaneously only available in limited capacities are included
in the planning, are assigned and then taken up by the production process.
This includes the tool, specially trained personnel, such as the line engi-
neer or the quality representative, as also special handling devices or re-
quired items of equipment.
In many production environments the tool as a resource is even more
important than the machine. Tool-related maintenance is based on regis-
tering service times and quantities (work cycles). Recording the tool num-
ber will be an unavoidable requirement when several tools of the same
tool type are being used, such as is normal in large quantity production,
for example. On the other hand it will not be necessary if only the planned
tool is used.
Active resources are barred with respect to parallel scheduling and use
in other machines.
Machine programs or machine settings records are special resources
which the terminal transfers into the machine controller during the set-up
procedure. Monitoring release criteria and versions management are also
tasks the MES system must perform for these resources.
6.4.5 Personnel
Biometric data.
Identification of individuals in sensitive environments or as part of access
control can be effected by recording and comparing biometric data. In the
meantime fingerprint readers and even retina scanners have become
available at a reasonable price thereby rendering a wide use of these iden-
tification techniques no longer utopian. Particularly in the field of access
control it is necessary to be able to control door openers. In this case the
terminal supports the corresponding interfaces.
Printers and printed codes.
Bar codes and even matrix codes are easy to create and flexibly config-
urable. For this reason printing labels at the machine’s data acquisition
station has further gained in importance. Its use in production logistics,
for the identification of material batches or transportation containers
during reclassification or relocation procedures, has become necessary
in many sectors of industry due to statutory requirements and is gaining
more ground.
Alarm devices.
There is a necessity for an alarm facility in the production process di-
rectly at the data acquisition terminal. The events triggering an alarm are
not only displayed by the MES system but also take the form of acoustic
or visual alarms. Configurable alarm situations are communicated by the
MES system directly to the responsible persons by email, pager or cell
phone on the basis of specifiable escalation levels.
Web clients for data acquisition at remote locations.
Under the buzzword of the “extended workbench” more and more pro-
duction environments are working with decentralized production facili-
ties or external service providers. Transparency for production control
throughout the entire production process will not be possible unless the
external production processes are also included in data acquisition relat-
ing to production progress. In addition to being fitted out with identical
data acquisition equipment, modern MES systems offer the possibility
of data acquisition via a web client. Configurable data acquisition dia-
logs which can be accessed on virtually any PC with an internet connec-
tion permit data to be collected on an inter-company basis.
requirements which the MES system must meet when supplying informa-
tion in the production environment.
The data acquisition terminal displays the current information regarding
the status of all data entry objects, thereby creating transparency in the
workplace and ensuring process reliability. Examples of how this need for
information manifests itself are current status monitors for the state of the
machine and the production process, for the order, the operation and the
material batches being used, for the machine operator or the team, for
pending inspections and recent inspection results, for the machine program
currently loaded, for tool use and upcoming maintenance intervals for ma-
chine or production tools.
Since the data acquisition terminals are networked, there is practically
no limit to how master information can be presented: images of assembly
drawings or finished articles, work instructions in the form of video se-
quences as an assembly aid, the display of setting parameters from the
DNC programs by means of suitable viewers are only some examples of
the plethora of information which is made available to the worker. What is
of decisive importance is the up-to-dateness of the information presented
and, unlike printed documents, this can be guaranteed at all times. Evalua-
tion functions for the last shift, the utilization ratio of the previous week,
consumption of materials during the current month, and so on, round off
the range of functions offered by the data acquisition terminal.
The personal motivation of the worker plays a decisive role in the opti-
mization of production processes. Information about personal needs and
personal targets are major factors. This includes the current time balance
of the employee, the current level of his incentive wages as well as his
success in reaching targets on the basis of the individual employee target
definition. These displays of information aimed at the individual are be-
coming more important, particularly with the arrival of manufacturing
scorecard methods (Kletti J, Brauckmann O, (2004)).
The MES system architecture provides tools which are used for the
preparation of information and for designing layouts for how the informa-
tion is to be presented. This means that all information functions can be
individually designed and via a log-in function can branch off into a per-
sonalized information pool for the employee.
design of dialogs for each work center, all of these require a modular sys-
tem architecture.
Integration of the data acquisition interfaces into the dialogs must be
configurable by, for example, specifying that the “personnel number” field
can only be occupied by the LEGIC identification number or that a quan-
tity status report field can only be filled out from the weighing device
controller.
The MES system will secure a good quality of data when a plausibility
check can be carried out on the data directly during the data acquisition
process. Depending on the data entry object in question, the most varied
tests can be defined in the MES system. Static checks will be concerned
with the master data or set-point data (for example “the actual quantity
must not exceed the set-point quantity”) while dynamic checks relate to the
course of the production process (for example “with overlapping produc-
tion the quantity produced in an operation must not exceed that of the pre-
vious operation”).
With manual dialog control, infringements of plausibility, such as ex-
ceeding quantity levels, can be displayed to the production personnel di-
rectly. This allows the worker to react to the infringement by correcting his
mistake and inputting the correct quantity. In this way the need for off-line
corrections can be largely prevented.
On the other hand, plausibility checks in communications with machine
controllers are a problem which can scarcely be solved in the dialog. The
interface between process and data acquisition client must deal with this
violation by means of a suitable exceptions handling routine and without
impairing data quality or integrity.
In many cases checks only make sense in certain parts of a company
while in others they are utterly useless. For this reason modern MES sys-
tems support dialog-oriented plausibility checks which by means of cus-
tomized settings can be activated or deactivated for different production
areas (cost centers, work centers, machine groups) or for different types
of order.
One important requirement is checking the status of all data entry ob-
jects by means of plausibility checks on the part of the MES system,
thereby securing an integral process reliability. For example, should a lab
check on material give a negative result, the material in question will be
immediately marked as barred. This online status check in the data acqui-
sition dialog before any use is made of materials ensures that material just
6.5 MES data acquisition functionality 133
All data which are acquired by the MES system must also be modifiable in
the MES system. This requirement relates not only to data which were
manually input but also to data obtained from process interfaces.
This modification functionality must be backed up by the corresponding
authorization checks and when the function is used this must be logged in
the MES system.
In the event of a correction the MES system must take into account all
interdependencies between the data entry objects. For example, correction
of a quantity entry will affect all relevant data entry objects, for example,
machine, order and personnel. When corrections are made, all interfaces
with higher-level systems must be supplied with the corresponding cancel-
lation records.
failure of the ERP system. Practical experience has shown that over
a period of several hours of failures on the ERP level, the store of orders
held in the MES system enabled production to keep going and this meant
that it was possible to avoid major economic losses.
The MES system itself has safety mechanisms which can bridge over
a failure of the corporate network. The data acquisition terminal caches
data when there is no connection to the MES server. In the event of the
LAN going down, plausibility checks at the data entry object against the
locally available data pools are possible.
Even with redundancy built into the system, power outages, database
failure or system hardware faults can result in total failure of MES data
acquisition. Should this occur, the organization goes into emergency mode.
For this eventuality the MES system provides a functionality whereby data
can be efficiently input later on.
Good and objective decisions can be made without having reliable infor-
mation at your disposal. With the MES system the very latest information
about the manufacturing environment is guaranteed available at all times
at the work centers of MES users. This information includes displays of
the online status of the order, the machine, the process, the tool, the mate-
rial currently being used and produced, as well as the quality and the
personnel.
The MES system provides each target group with objective information
based on different time scales. For example, for a particular order or article
the MES receives different information under different time aspects: plan-
ning lists for the next shift, operations in progress at the work centers of
the machine park, orders completed the previous day, or displays of actual
times required in comparison with the specified times for all orders for
a special article in the previous three months.
The worker at the machine is however interested in different informa-
tion being displayed than the production manager is. For this reason all
data acquired can be cumulated on the basis of different time bases or by
departments and graphically prepared. It is important to the machine op-
erator that all machine states recorded are available for individual analysis
for group meetings in the same way as utilization analyses serve as a basis
for the department supervisor’s reporting to the production manager, and
the plant OEE figures (OEE = overall equipment efficiency) enable man-
agement at corporate headquarters make an objective comparison of dif-
ferent plants.
136 6 Integrated production management with MES
In the MES system analyses can be produced for all data entry objects and
over any period of time. Analyses are made available at all data entry objects
in the MES system. The following examples will provide just a small sample:
Article, order and operation profiles
Analyses of transportation, queuing and storage times within production
Display of overhead cost balances from registration of all secondary
processing times
Idle-time analyses for machines and installations over any time period
Comparisons of productivity indices
Personnel information relating to completed activities
Incentive wage curves for individuals or incentive payment groups
Actual-value graphs for process values
Traceability analyses for material and batch tracking in production
SPC analyses of defined quality characteristics and scrap analyses
Tool histories showing service lives
138 6 Integrated production management with MES
Powerful MES systems will even supply the available analyses to a web
client. The MES system can thus be used globally as a tool: the production
manager can also view at an outside location all relevant information for
his field of responsibility and he can directly compare key data across dif-
ferent companies. Manufacturing companies whose structure is changing
due to globalization and relocation of production facilities will profit from
being able to make inter-plant trend comparisons on the basis of data from
the MES systems in those individual locations.
After a configurable time interval of several months the MES system
will normally delete all transaction data from the active datasets. Acquired
information to be held in long-term data storage in the MES system is
combined and transferred into archive tables. Analyses of these archive
data can also be included in current analyses by means of the correspond-
ing switches.
In its analyses the MES system does not present static data but rather
shows temporal changes and current values in the form of a trend curve.
For specified operational target agreements the MES system displays
Literature 139
intermediate results occurring along the road to the target and thus the
degree to which the target has so far been attained.
The MES system can be used for formulating operational target agree-
ments. The data entry objects and logical linkages between them form the
basis for this. Examples include the specification of target values for ma-
chine idle-time minimization, for scrap rates, or the formulation of utiliza-
tion rates which must be reached within a specified time.
Operational target agreements can be broken down by any type of or-
ganizational unit. Requirements may be laid down for the plant, the cost
center or the work center, the incentive payments group or the individual
employees.
The target is published and the actual values on the road to hitting the
target are systematically tracked. Everyone involved in this innovation
process can read off from the MES information displays how far targets
are currently being met. Personal target displays and their attainment rates
are integrated into the employee information display.
The MES system provides sustained support for the organization since
long-term employee motivation is guaranteed by the target values specified.
Literature
Kletti J, Brauckmann O (2004) Manufacturing Scorecard. Gabler, Wiesbaden
7 Detailed planning and control with MES
3. Detailed planning
From the roughly scheduled production orders come the corresponding
capacity requirements for the resources needed. Here a distinction is drawn
between the primary resources (machines/installations) and the secondary
resources (personnel, tools, and so on).
7.1 Overview and goals 143
its execution offers only minimal room for maneuver. A time-intensive and
strategic approach to planning would here be out of all proportion to the
results which could be achieved, which in most cases would only be valid
for a short time anyway. To sum up, the core tasks of detailed planning
and control in an integrated production environment are as follows:
Resource allocation;
Flow control;
Resolution of conflicts;
Balancing against rough planning.
From the point of view of an MES, detailed planning or, put more pre-
cisely, technical resource allocation and feedback from the progress of the
real events is to be considered only as a unit. Whilst in conventional plan-
ning systems such as, for example, ERP/PPS systems, this control loop is
mostly used in replanning, in current MES systems the planned world
melds with the reality in the actual situation.
The core task of detailed planning is to bring the capacity-oriented orders
on hand out of rough planning and into a technology-oriented allocation of
available resources. Where capacity orientation in an ERP/PPS and tech-
nology orientation in an MES differ can be very nicely illustrated by the
example of an injection-molding production facility which frequently has
a large number of machines of the same or at least of comparable types.
Assuming that ten technically equivalent injection-molding machines
are available to the planning department and work is in two 8-hour shifts.
This means that rough planning has at its disposal a capacity of 320 hours
per day. Differentiating the individual machines at this point – in other
words, for rough planning in the ERP/PPS system – is irrelevant.
But it will be of consuming interest to production and thus, for example,
to the shift foreman and ultimately to the machine operator to know on
which of the machines an order will now actually be produced. What
makes things more difficult is that when the ten machines are examined
more closely they do differ in detail, even if this is solely to do with their
current tooling states. For example, in this case only two of the machines
have a certain additional unit which is required for manufacturing a small
number of particular products. It may also be the case that only some of
the machines – and then only in combination with particular molds – have
7.2 Use of MES for detailed planning and control 145
been released for use for reasons of quality or for reasons associated with
the customer.
In the case of investment-intensive installations and frequently when
processes are technically complex, rough planning already mostly deals
with individual physical capacities and thereby removes the need for ca-
pacity selection in the MES. In such cases the emphasis is frequently on
sequence planning which takes into consideration the capacity of secon-
dary resources.
The key requirements identified during rough planning are passed on by
rough planning with the orders on hand as restrictions for detailed plan-
ning. Essentially these are the following:
Earliest possible order start data
Latest possible order finish date
Order quantity
How the order is now executed within the specified limits is of no inter-
est to the ERP/PPS level and is the responsibility of production itself. The
buffer or the degrees of freedom deriving from the buffer can be used as
part of detailed planning. It thus becomes clear that the handling capabili-
ties of detailed planning are basically determined by the specified con-
straints. However, it is precisely in the extreme case with tight constraints
(for example, very tight target dates) that detailed planning in the MES
system makes its presence felt on account of its closeness to the technol-
ogy and the way the actual situation is reported back in real time.
Skillful sequencing thus allows massive reductions in set-up times or
even prevents them, thereby making up for bottlenecks elsewhere. On the
other hand, times required for transporting or converting supplementary
modules or tools can be optimized provided their allocation is mapped as
part of detailed planning, taking into consideration the real capacity, the
locations where they are currently stored or installed, and also, if applica-
ble, scheduled activities such as maintenance.
Alongside the constraints arising from the rough planning, useful de-
tailed planning in the MES and execution of the corresponding tasks to be
performed here calls for additional structures which in most cases have
a technological background. These will be examined in the following sec-
tions and the need for them clarified.
1. Individual/machine capacity
This is the typical type of a machine capacity which has to be allocated
exclusively and which is basically defined by the time availability indi-
cated. The availability can also be influenced by a general utilization or
performance level so as to, for example, classify machines in a group which
have lower performance but which can be used as technically equivalent.
Lead times are calculated exclusively on the basis of parameters which
derive from the pair of work center and operation.
Examples:
Injection-molding machine
Screw press
Stamping press
Welding robot
2. Group capacity
Distinguishing it from the individual work centers just mentioned, with
this kind of work center, alongside the primary capacity derived from the
recorded availability of the work center itself, the specific availabilities of
additional required resources are most important.
The ultimate restrictions or loading bottlenecks mostly arise from the
labor capacity available or quite generally from the secondary resources
and production tools required. With work centers of this kind the running
time of operations is frequently guided by the type or number of resources
used while the work center itself remains in the background. This becomes
clear when labor-intensive processing steps are considered.
Examples:
Assembly facilities
Manual work centers
Examples:
Electroplating baths
Annealing furnaces
Painting lines
7.2 Use of MES for detailed planning and control 149
4. Machining centers
The machining center represents a special challenge to system-supported
load planning. Here it is assumed that at a particular point in time precisely
one workpiece is being machined and thus one operation involved, but that
work pieces can be supplied in parallel. By suitably combining several opera-
tions and using the corresponding tools the aim can be pursued of keeping the
spindles running as continuously as possible. A closer consideration of the
degrees of freedom and the constraints which apply makes the scale of the
task clear. Accordingly the combinations of operations should be checked by
means of suitable technical parameters such as, for example, the NC pro-
gram, and the individual machining times for a workpiece leveled against the
loading times. Furthermore, several of these machining centers are usually
looked after by one employee which means that one loading must suffice for
a specific time without any other person being involved. In addition to the
actual machining centers, the various tools will also have to be considered.
These are often supplied from automated tool feeders which sometimes look
after several installations. This results in an additional restriction.
Further to the actual load planning, a suitable running time calculation
for the various operations must be carried out for this machining center.
With this calculation it must be remembered that the operations, although
they are active in parallel in the installation, are still processed sequen-
tially. This means that the machine combination, the tool-changing time,
the pallet capacity and the frequency of repetition will have an effect on
the running time of the individual operations.
Example:
CNC pallet machines
Alongside the relationships which arise from the bills of material and op-
eration sheets, the process is determined by numerous technical parame-
ters, especially those close to the process. The more detailed the considera-
tion given to the influences on the processes the more realistic a plan will
be and the more likely it will be implemented.
Technological parameters of this kind might be, for example, possible
combinations of different resources in order to manufacture a particular
7.2 Use of MES for detailed planning and control 153
The primary task of detailed planning is to prepare a plan for executing the
orders emerging from rough planning using the capacities which are avail-
able and taking technical constraints into consideration. A plan of this kind
is produced by allocating the various resources – this is why the corre-
sponding planning activity is also known as resource allocation.
Depending on the individual industry, the manufacturing environment,
the time situation and the desired flexibility within the context of detailed
planning we obtain the preliminary lead time during which resource allo-
cation takes place before actual execution in production itself. The MES
7.2 Use of MES for detailed planning and control 155
Due to the fact that different technical facts are taken into consideration
in the MES detailed planning, the likelihood of a resource allocation thus
made actually happening is very high and can also be continuously im-
proved by optimizing and giving the parameters a higher level of detail.
For example, restrictions due to absence of machine authorizations, to
currently barred tools or to vacation situations are taken into account. This
of course applies not only to automatic planning or the preparation of
planning suggestions but also to manual interaction.
As regards manpower planning – in this case production personnel –
two basic methods can be identified in companies which are essentially
determined by the environment, by the flexibility and the deployability of
the employees. The major difference very nicely describes the variance
which MES systems must deal with in the field of detailed planning.
In the one case, the manpower which is available and plannable emerges
from attendance /absence planning and acts as a restriction in the pro-
duction planning.
In the other extreme case, production planning indicates what corre-
spondingly qualified personnel are needed and this is input into short-
term manpower planning as a requirement which must be satisfied.
As has been described in the previous section, many alternatives exist for
planning orders on the basis of specified strategies. The number of varia-
tions rises drastically when manual interventions are included.
By applying different strategies and making an objective appraisal of the
results, various simulations can be carried out.
7.2 Use of MES for detailed planning and control 157
may mean that loading or compliance with deadlines is neglected or, in the
reverse case, complying with all date requests or even date promises may be
at the expense of setting-up time or of the work in progress inventory.
This permanent conflict of objectives can be very clearly illustrated by
the following diagram in which the corners of the pyramid represent the
competing objectives and the ball in the middle the individual objective or
the compromise.
By giving suitable weightings to the individual objectives they can be
brought together and summarized in a combined objective – provided cer-
tain compromises are accepted. Various plans can now be generated and
judged on the basis of this combined objective and thus compared with
each other.
The various simulations can be generated by selecting and applying dif-
ferent planning strategies. If, for example, an overload situation has to be
compensated for, the capacity available can easily be varied by adding an
additional shift or even by simulating new installations.
If the situation as regards the individual objective can be improved by
varying a criterion, the results can be further optimized by repeating the
simulation on the basis of the “best” situation and by varying different
parameters.
To sum up, the overall situation can be continually improved by finding
“better” plans. What is of decisive importance to the quality and the success
of this procedure is the coherence of the individual objective. The manufac-
turers of MES systems offer different strategies for system-supported
optimization. Research has been going on for years into the optimization of
it are displayed in real time and objectively. The action which is necessary
may then take different forms. Once again, some examples:
Due to a machine failure the planned orders need to be transferred to
other machines and this makes replanning work necessary. Since with the
new loading not all orders can be executed in the time planned originally,
this failure might possibly be evened out by means of an additional shift or
by agreeing with the customer on a partial delivery with the remainder
being delivered at a later date.
Quality problems at an automotive manufacturing plant mean that an
important and urgent order cannot be produced at the rate planned. The
deadline can be met by splitting the operation and using a parallel re-
source, thereby avoiding not only a loss of face but also painful contractual
penalties.
An important customer requires an additional quantity of units at short
notice and the company would like to oblige this customer. By planning in
the corresponding order and in particular by taking all technological as-
pects into consideration, the effects of doing so become transparent. The
various faults and effects are appropriately escalated by the MES and
communicated to the user. This, for example, might be a direct visualiza-
tion in the graphic planning table. To be able during the night shift, for
example, to notify persons on duty that a machine standstill or some other
serious deviation has occurred, not only can the corresponding media be
used, such as messaging on a cell phone, but an email could even be sent.
In addition to quick-response displays of faults and conflicts, the MES
can support the user by displaying and evaluating what alternative possi-
bilities exist. In a case of this kind, various scenarios can be simulated and
the corresponding outcomes evaluated. This thus provides the basis for
objective decision-making when, for example, a special shift or a weekend
shift is to be included. It is also conceivable that expensive overtime will
only ameliorate the effects to a trivial extent and thus make it unreasonable
from the economic point of view. To follow this line of thought a little fur-
ther, this inefficient special shift – if seen solely from the monetary point of
view – can be used for special orders in order to minimize loss of face.
As should be clear from what we have said, the planning of so-called sec-
ondary capacities or even production tools is an important task of detailed
planning in an MES system. We will now illustrate this necessity by means
of some more examples.
7.3 Management of the means of production (resources) 163
The status of each individual resource is recorded, in the same way as with
machines. To make things clearer, here is an example of a status model for
a particular kind of resource.
Since there are various kinds of resources, the design of the status mod-
els is also kept flexible in resource management so that different special
aspects can be covered. Alongside the discrete status of the resources the
storage location of the resources can also be managed.
Thanks to the integrated approach of an MES system, the quantities and
times relating to processing can be posted directly to the resource. This
means that not only is this information registered but we also obtain the
basic data for monitoring maintenance intervals controlled on the basis of
work cycles or service time. These maintenance intervals are planned in
the MES’s own maintenance calendar which rounds off the range of func-
tions in an integrated MES system.
By registering and recording all activities relating to each individual re-
source a history is built up in the MES in the form of a log which can sub-
sequently be evaluated by resource and thus by machine. A log of this kind
is mandatory, for example, in the food industry and above all in the phar-
maceutical industry.
7.3 Management of the means of production (resources) 165
7.4 Summary
The essence of this is that in the real world of production, events are
permanently occurring which result in deviations from the plan and
whose removal or treatment dominates everyday routines. Support
for users in their attempts to overcome these problems is an elemen-
tary task of an MES system in the field of detailed planning and
control. With these short-notice decisions, both the original planning
goals and algorithmic optimization strategies step into the back-
ground.
The precision or level of detail in a plan and thus the effort required
to draw up the plan must be commensurate with the likelihood of the
plan actually being executed!
8 Quality assurance with MES
A quality plan is a form of project planning which aims not only to define
process flows, which are oriented by corporate goals and by what custom-
ers want, but also to monitor compliance. In connection with quality plan-
ning, Sect. 5.5.2 of DIN ISO/CD2 9001:2000 states: “The organization
must determine and plan the activities and means of reaching quality ob-
jectives. Planning must be reconcilable with other requirements of the QM
system. Planning must cover the following areas:
Processes required in the QM system
Required (product) realization processes and means
Definition of quality characteristics on different levels so as to secure
the desired results
Verification activities
Acceptance criteria and required quality records. The planning must en-
sure that organizational changes are carried out under guidance and that
operation of the QM system is maintained during these changes.” A qual-
ity planning which is transparent and complete as far as its contents are
concerned lays the foundation stone for demonstrating to the customer that
his suppliers are meeting requirements relating to function and to quality.
An MES supports the user in the systematic early preparation and planning
of all measures necessary for attaining a level of performance which satis-
fies the customer.
8.2 Planned quality 171
When an MES system is deployed, one result, even on the level of the
basic data, is the emergence of synergies. There is now no need for dupli-
cated maintenance of the same kind of data as is the case with monolithic
standard products. The master data interfaces they require are in most
cases bound up with high costs and administrative outlay.
The following are some of the basis data relevant to quality which can
be managed centrally in the MES (in other words, for all MES functions
collectively):
Units
Work centers and inspection stations
Defect types and reasons for rejection
Cost types
Persons
stage and specifically activated at a fixed point in time. The version man-
agement applet allows automatic documentation of when, why and by
whom changes were made. The MES keeps these data available for re-
search purposes such as, for example, into the history of particular parts.
If the MES includes an initial sample inspection, the user receives sup-
port in importing the corresponding characteristics into production inspec-
tion plans. All relevant settings are imported and can be edited if so de-
sired. Even this reduces the planning effort and prevents those errors
which can occur when quality characteristics are copied manually.
The quality of the materials flowing into production has a great influence
on the quality of the products, especially in the light of increasing speciali-
zation and the reduction in vertical integration. Before the best suppliers
can be selected in the purchasing department, effective evaluation methods
must be deployed. One of these methods is supplier rating.
Supplier rating is a classic domain of ERP/PPS systems. Here all rele-
vant factors are collected with data being read in from subsystems via in-
terfacing functions. Key data are obtained for the various suppliers from
all of these individual factors and possibly too from subjective criteria as
well. These key data are used for rating the suppliers and are also very
useful during meetings with suppliers. These methods make it possible for
the quality of supplied goods and materials to be continuously improved.
Once the MES has all of the data used in supplier rating, in straightfor-
ward cases supplier rating can even be carried out within the MES system
itself. Since real-time data are available in the MES it is also possible to
take a snapshot of the current quality situation of a supplier.
Before supplier rating can be carried out in the MES system, the corre-
sponding criteria must have already been defined or taken over from the
ERP/PPS system. This takes the form of rating catalogs. In these, different
evaluation blocks can be defined in a freely definable hierarchy. Evalua-
tion criteria are then assigned to these blocks, being classified at the same
time into the categories of “subjective” and “automatically determinable”.
While the subjective criteria have to be assessed manually, the automatic
criteria obtain their results from the MES datapool directly.
Both the evaluation criteria and the evaluation blocks can be weighted
differently. The block is graded is on the basis of the current grading of
a criterion and its weighting. The supplier rating is calculated from the
evaluations and weightings of the corresponding blocks.
In the rating catalogs as well the MES system applies the versionization
and activation procedures already familiar from inspection planning. This
ensures that even in this area, all changes in the planning basis are gap-
lessly documented.
The decisive advantage in using an MES is that all of the data present in
the system can be called on directly when assessing suppliers. The result of
the MES supplier rating can either be used directly or be consulted within
the ERP/PPS system for a comprehensive assessment of a supplier.
8.2 Planned quality 177
The integration of production and quality management means that all rele-
vant data can be clearly displayed within an application. Users do not need
to run several systems in parallel in order to view information or maintain
it. There is no need for redundant inputs and/or expensive interfaces.
When an action and escalation management function is integrated into
the MES system, standardized tools become available for systematic and
documented notifications and assignment of tasks. This results in short
information paths between shift foremen, machine operators, inspectors
and quality managers. Integrated progress control helps users not lose track
of important activities.
With the aid of workflow-based process control, in-house know-how
can be mapped transparently and used efficiently. Should an employee in
the quality laboratory report sick, for example, his supervisor will be noti-
fied of the orders in which inspections are affected by his absence. This
allows the absent employee’s tasks to be reassigned in personnel planning
to other employees with the same qualification.
In the quality data acquisition function of an MES system not only can
order documents, tool and machine information be accessed but also data
relating to production planning. This means that the limitations in obtain-
ing information found in the island solution “quality assurance” have been
dismantled. The planned duration of production and thus the completion
data are thus equally as accessible as information on how much of the cur-
rent job has been completed. Furthermore, the inspector can examine
stored work plans and thus obtain an overview of the subsequent produc-
tion process. Only this comprehensive access to all relevant information
will make it possible for the correct action to be taken with quality prob-
lems. In the case of areas of weakness which are due, for example, to tool
wear, it can be ascertained immediately whether a replacement tool is
available or whether a complete re-tooling to a different product is neces-
sary. Global access to the information relating to the next scheduled main-
tenance for the machine means that a decision can be made straightaway to
bring the maintenance forward. An MES system supplies all required in-
formation in the latest state required.
The MES allows any user to access the data which are relevant to him.
Documents need only be prepared once, after which they only require net-
working with the individual function blocks. This gets rid of redundant
document maintenance and assignment. For example, an article drawing
can be stored centrally with the article master data and be available to all
MES modules. This centrally stored document can be accessed not only
8.4 Documented quality 187
occur during the product creation process have a great influence on the
resulting product quality. The same is true of the characteristic values of
process, machine and tool parameters. All in all there are five groups of
causes which are responsible for deviations in quality:
The individual as an operator or inspector;
The material used as the result of an upstream production process;
The machine with the elementary influencing factor, the tool;
The method which decisively determines the interplay of the individual
and the machine, and
The milieu with various environmental influences such as temperature
and dust, for example.
One example of the importance of the “tool” as an influencing factor is
the risk of voids forming should a specified mold temperature not be
reached. Due to the dependence of product quality on the diversity of in-
fluencing factors associated with the cause groups mentioned above, the
interlinking of all information takes on a great importance. This is made
clear by the gapless documentation of part history which is required as part
of product liability and which is a constituent part of an MES system.
The part history must include other information in addition to known in-
fluencing variables. It must always list all important events which occurred
from the time the drawing was prepared to when the tools were scrapped.
Should there be modifications, these must be described and reasons for
them given. Possible contents of a part history include:
The date of sampling and the beginning of deliveries for production
purposes;
Information about tool repairs;
Information about process optimizations;
Information about release changes, and
The use of new materials.
In the case of complex products, such as machines or automobiles, in
addition to the historical approach there is also the requirement that events
be integrated into the part history following completion of the product. If
a safety-related component is replaced, this change must be documented
on account of the traceability required in connection with product liability.
To enable the correct response to be made in the case of a damaging event,
which person must respond to which events will be stipulated. Should the
damaging event occur, progress control of all activities will be required.
These in turn must be integrated into the part history.
8.4 Documented quality 189
8.4.3 Traceability
Traceability is gaining in importance and not solely from the point of view
of statutory requirements. It is also becoming increasingly important in the
context of reducing production costs and thereby increasingly becoming
a strategic factor on the corporate level.
In many companies quality assurance systems are established as island
solutions. They cannot however provide complete traceability and in the
event of a claim this can lead to problems. In connection with statutory
regulations, the introduction of a traceability system is indispensable. Help-
ing users to manage this requirement is a basic task of an MES system. To
put it another way, MES is about ensuring the traceability of products.
All of the details of product creation are traceably documented in
a traceability system. This includes information from all modules of an
MES system, for example:
Lots or batches coming in or being created
Lot and batch attributes describing material (for example, weight,
length, bond areas, date of manufacture, expiry date)
Operating supplies used
Machines used
Process data obtained
Individuals involved in the production process
Tools used
192 8 Quality assurance with MES
for idle times or the utilization ratio with respect to the articles and article
groups being produced there, the best machine for the particular instance
of production can be identified. A further improvement becomes possible
when the machine-related reasons for malfunctions and for scrap are ex-
amined in relation to the product defects detected by inspections and the
reasons for these defects. In addition to examination of the lead time there
are more “quality-remote” factors which will allow optimization of value
creation.
Another example of the advantages of a comprehensively networked
data pool is a cavity-based and cavity-comparative analysis which takes
into account the entire history of the mould. This will reveal the effects on
product quality of repairs to or maintenance of individual cavities or
whether individual cavities need frequent re-machining during repairs and
maintenance.
One advantage of an MES system is that the data required for analyses
are rapidly, systematically and inexpensively available from all depart-
ments. Since data acquisition and processing as a whole is based on uni-
form master data these evaluations can be regarded as secured. There is no
duplicated management and maintenance of master data on the basis of,
for example, reasons for scrap and malfunctions, types of defect, causes of
defects. This means there is no risk of faults in quality management nor, as
part of identifying the reasons for problems, in machine data collection
being registered twice over or incompletely and being analyzed separately.
Without this unitary approach to analysis it is difficult to define a clear
structure for determining the number of reject parts.
Fig. 8.8. The five Six Sigma project phases according to DMAIC
196 8 Quality assurance with MES
Restricting Six Sigma to quality management data will not suffice. Instead,
information from all departments of a company, such as operating re-
sources management, materials management and personnel management.
Examples of this are the lead times for orders and the reasons for malfunc-
tions and downtimes when a production stop occurs. This shows how im-
portant is the use of an MES system with its networked information.
The DMAIC cycle is frequently employed as a means of achieving
process and product improvements. The DMAIC cycle has five phases and
ensures that an improvement project is defined correctly and carried out
using suitable methods.
Experience shows that when Six Sigma is used, waste in a company due
to defects, overlong lead times and excessive costs can be drastically re-
duced within a few months. In addition, the results of Six Sigma projects
can be applied directly in many MES functions such as resource planning
and order planning.
9.1 Overview
Staff work time logging is concerned with the three main aspects of time
registration, time management and short-term manpower planning.
Time registration
Instead of the old time clocks, computer terminals are now used for register-
ing the clocking-in/clocking-out times of the workforce. In addition, it is
also possible to input breaks and the reasons for starting work late or finish-
ing early. The terminal can also display up-to-date information about vaca-
tion days remaining, time credits or recent clocking-in or clocking-out times.
Messages can also be sent for employees to read at the terminal and these
messages can, for example, be displayed when the employee clocks in.
Time management
The task of time management is to ascertain the actual time worked by
rounding off the clocking-in and clocking-out times and debiting the work
breaks. Following comparison with the required work time laid down in
the work time model, it calculates the overhours or underhours, should this
apply. These can be paid out or collected in a time account. In addition to
time accounts, the vacation account is also maintained. The working hours
worked by the employee are posted by time management to pay types on
the basis of configurable payment rules and these are added up at the end
of the month and transferred to the payroll department. Here we under-
stand work time model in a broad sense which ranges from the familiar
day/shift time, via flextime to monthly, annual or even lifetime working
hours. With workflow management, procedures such as applying for vaca-
tion or correcting incorrect clocking-in or clocking-out events can be re-
produced without the use of paper. In addition, current overviews display
present and absent employees, trends in the hours worked and statistics for
times of absence.
9.2 Staff work time logging 201
The attendance time determined can be compared with the work order
times reported in the PDA. This comparison is important for ensuring
that all of the hours worked by the employee have been recorded in the
PDA since these data are required for the controlling department or for
incentive payments.
Running time management within the MES system means that periods
of absence can be registered, incorrect clocking-in and clocking-out
events corrected and overtime approved on a decentralized basis by the
foreman using the interface familiar to him from, for example, PDA.
There is no need to install an additional workstation.
Short-term manpower planning requires that the scheduled work times
of the employees be held in the MES system. This makes it possible, for
example, to take the resource of personnel into account when planning
orders at the control station.
While payroll systems have a standardized interface for the transfer of
salary types, interfaces for inputting work hours performed from the
time management system to allow comparison with the PDA and with
scheduled work times or absence times for the purpose of short-term
manpower planning will in most cases need to be implemented on a pro-
ject-specific basis.
One example of an ERP system which includes a time management func-
tion is SAP-HR. When using SAP a decision must be made as to whether
the MES system should be used as a subsystem for registering clocking-in
and clocking-out events or whether the time management function in the
MES system should be used. In either case the HR-PDC interface is used.
Trends like “just in time” are concerned with reducing the costs of stock
keeping and of current assets by always manufacturing exactly what the
customer wants at that precise time. A consequence of this is considerable
fluctuations in capacity loading in production and in many management
departments.
In addition, seasonal variations in the demand for particular products re-
sult in a different distribution of labor requirements. At the same time,
however, personnel costs take up a high proportion of production costs
which means that preventing unproductive wages is an increasingly impor-
tant task of personnel planning. These and many more reasons besides
make an increasing flexibilization of working hours necessary.
One simple way of satisfying this requirement is to introduce a time ac-
count. Irrespective of whether the employees themselves determine the
9.2 Staff work time logging 203
movements of their time account on the basis of the amount of work avail-
able or whether building up or cutting down the hours in the account is
controlled by the company, a time account provides a way of matching the
labor deployed to the current demand.
In line with this, different types of accounts are used. If the employee
himself is responsible for running his account, this type of account is called
a flextime account. For their part, companies use the flextime account for
controlling additional work and shortages of work. In the case of
a seasonally fluctuating inflow of orders, an annual account can be used for
ensuring that the work time evens out over the course of the year. A high
demand for labor sustained over a relatively long period can be covered in
a lifetime working hours account. With this type of account, the additional
hours worked can give the employee the opportunity of retiring earlier.
Any overtime which is required can be worked before or after regular
working hours. In the case of companies which are already working three
shifts so as to achieve a high level of machine utilization, additional shifts
can be planned in at weekends.
It is, however, still possible to use flextime with three-shift operation.
What matters to production is not that the employees start and finish their
work at particular times but that enough personnel are present to operate
Before employees can successfully perform their duties they must acquire
the necessary knowledge and capabilities and also expand them by further
training. Further training also shows the employee that he is worth the
corresponding costs incurred by the company and this boosts his content-
ment and motivation.
It is precisely the continuing trend towards automation in production
which calls for constant further training of the operating personnel. It is
only by specializing in particular task areas that it can be ensured that these
complex machines and systems are being operated correctly and thus
reaching a high level of productivity.
What is important to the company is that its investment in its employees
is implemented in a way which yields a profit. For this reason one of the
tasks of the MES system is to register employee qualifications and display
them close to the production line. For example, a plausibility check is car-
ried out when an order is opened to ensure that the person handling the
order has the necessary qualifications. This procedure will improve the
quality expected in the finished products and also increase the motivation
of the employees since they are not be used for tasks for which they lack
the requisite knowledge or skills.
Current studies show that around 60–70% of all companies use a standard
spreadsheet program as a tool for planning the deployment of personnel.
Allocation of which employees will work on the scheduled orders at which
work centers is also frequently carried out using wall charts.
The problem with these methods is that data such as the vacation appli-
cations of employees have to be maintained in several locations. Redun-
dant data storage of this kind means unnecessary extra expenses and re-
sults in individual data statuses drifting apart. This in turn is the cause of
errors in personnel planning and the economic efficiency of production
drops due to a lack of personnel or to an oversupply of personnel. Al-
though the data are maintained in several locations they are often not
available in other important locations. For example, when planning in the
orders it would make sense to be able to compare the planning against the
labor capacities available.
9.4 Short-term manpower planning 207
To be able to process vacation applications from his staff the supervisor must
have an overview showing whether enough personnel are still available for
a controlled process flow. In this regard it is not sufficient to take into ac-
count the number of employees who are scheduled to be available but the
jobs they perform and their time account balances must also be considered.
While vacation planning is often carried out a long time in advance, shift
planning tends to be at medium or short range. The task of shift planning is
to ensure that the individual shifts are allocated sufficient personnel. Since
this is based solely on data from staff work time logging, empirical values
or target values from the ERP system will be used if necessary.
A vacation and shift planning module is used primarily by foremen and
shift foremen. For this reason this module will have to be operated intui-
tively and simple planning functions provided. The result of this planning
is the shift plan, which is made available to employees as a printout or in
electronic form or which the worker can call up at the terminal.
208 9 Personnel management with MES
a planning simulation on the basis of the labor capacities. This shows the
advantage of an MES system in which individual modules can be mutually
integrated without interfaces needing to be defined or implemented.
the capabilities required. With these data, the personnel assignment func-
tion attempts to identify the best plan possible whereby the work centers
are completely filled with the best qualified workers. The result of person-
nel assignment is a personnel deployment plan which is printed out for the
employees or which can be viewed at the terminal via an information key.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York and Washington
changed the world. One consequence of these events is that many compa-
nies need a higher level of security. But there are yet other reasons for
monitoring the entrances to and exits from company premises and also the
doors between different rooms inside company buildings:
Unlike conventional locks, with an access control system (ACS) time-
based authorizations can be assigned. This means that it is possible, for
example, to ensure that certain employees will only be allowed access
during working hours on weekdays while other employees will have 24-
hour access to their place of work, and even at weekends as well.
With a conventional lock, a lost key often means that the entire lock has
to be replaced while with an access control system the lost ID card loses
its authorizations as soon as a new card is issued.
Logging of when employees enter is necessary, particularly in areas
where security is of special importance.
Checking authorization for particular rooms, factory shops and ware-
house areas and logging of accesses improves protection against theft
and pilfering. Even with respect to industrial espionage it will be neces-
sary to define which employees and visitors are permitted to enter which
areas.
In high-security areas, keys need to be protected against misuse. Here
the identity of the employee can be verified by an additional pin code or
by biometric features (a fingerprint, for example).
In the event of fire, a list of all employees currently on the premises
must be available so that it is possible to find out which employees have
not assembled at the muster stations.
Via the escalation management module, alarms relating to doors opened
without authorization or sabotage of the access readers can be passed di-
rectly to the employees responsible.
Installing a powerful MES system will cover these requirements. In ad-
dition, current information about the state of the individual access points
can be displayed at the security control station:
9.6 Outlook 211
9.6 Outlook
Literature
Kletti J, Brauckmann O (2004) Manufacturing Scorecard – Prozesse effizienter
gestalten, mehr Kundennähe erreichen – mit vielen Praxisbeispielen [The
manufacturing scorecard: designing processes more efficiently, achieving
greater customer orientation, with many practical examples], Gabler, Wies-
baden
10 MES with SAP
10.1 Motives
Due to its great popularity and high degree of standardization SAP has in
two regards a special importance among ERP systems on the market. In
the first place, developments for an MES vendor in the SAP environment
pay off due to the high level of market penetration; Second, SAP is one of
the few suppliers in the ERP environment who actively advocates an inde-
pendent MES system outside mySAP ERP in order to be able to offer their
customers vertical integration. It is precisely in the manufacturing envi-
ronment that a partner concept for so-called manufacturing applications
has been massively beefed up since mid-2004: the “adaptive manufactur-
ing” partnership leads all other efforts.
With this initiative and the corresponding publications SAP is clearly
demonstrating that for many industries and areas of application the use of
an independent MES is to be recommended to allow exploitation of the
full functionality of the SAP ERP and logistics solutions. On the SAP side
this depends on integration of the MES solutions of the partners.
The idea of integrating an MES system into the ERP world is gaining
a new importance at SAP and demands of an MES – and thus, of course, of
an MES vendor – a whole series of interfaces and integration technologies.
It is, however, of decisive importance to the SAP user – in other words, the
manufacturing company using mySAP – that he does not lose sight of
what is really necessary to secure the quality of the application. Here the
suitable technology itself should only form the basis of being able to build
an application. SAP offers a technology platform for implementing
a “wide” range of applications with the MES very deeply integrated into
the SAP world. SAP puts its SAP NetWeaver technology platform at the
center of these efforts. Accordingly, labels such as “Certified for SAP Net-
Weaver” initially mean only that the vendor in question is using the tech-
nology but not that any added value has been generated here in the applica-
tion itself.
The certificate “Powered by NetWeaver” aims at considerably more in
the direction of application. It confirms that a partner has integrated his
application on the NetWeaver platform into the SAP applications.
214 10 MES with SAP
It is very difficult for the user to separate technology and application, es-
pecially in the SAP environment. Lavish marketing campaigns on the part
of SAP and the SAP environment do not always make a contribution here to
increasing transparency. The technical terms and buzz words alone increas-
ingly compel the medium-sized manufacturing company to ask the ques-
tion: “what is the benefit for my company?”. The answer to this question is
the motivation behind what follows. We also look at the definitions thus
provided which relate to integration of an MES system into mySAP ERP.
Level 3: Automation
Depending on the industry and/or production structure, this level includes
functions which in the process industry/continuous production are largely
handled by process control systems. In discrete manufacturing these func-
tions for controlling the production process are for the most part mapped
on the level of production control (shop floor control). On this level we
also find not only all of the functions and processes in the manufacturing
company which control the machines and installations but also those
which are responsible for the exchange of information and control parame-
ters to and from the machine or machine group.
Transportation management
Depending on the manufacturing sequence and infrastructure of an indi-
vidual manufacturing company, the term transportation management has
some quite different meanings. Transportation management definitely does
not include the transportation of materials from one production plant to
another, to a distribution center or directly to the final customer. Normally
220 10 MES with SAP
these functions are handled within the SAP system by supply chain man-
agement. In certain production industries, such as the steel industry, there
are also great distances to be bridged as well. Between individual produc-
tion areas such as the blast furnace and the hot-rolling mill, transportation
logistics within the plant are an important and completely independent task
for supply chain management. The same also applies however to manufac-
turing companies which on account of their growth history have very diffi-
cult infrastructural conditions (parts of the plant separated by public roads,
parts of the plant at great distances from each other although at the same
location).
Here transportation management and transportation logistics belong par-
tially or completely to the production process and must be handled with
a similar flexibility as the production process itself. It makes sense in this
case to map transportation management as an independent logistics func-
tion within the MES system. The same is also true of the typical materials
arising during production (WIP = work in process). The intermediate mate-
rials thus created have only a “short life” and for this reason it is not neces-
sary to manage them in their own planning stage within materials man-
agement (MM).
In addition to registering and tracking intermediate materials in the pro-
duction process, a decisive role is played on the transportation manage-
ment level by the documentation of the creation process for customer end-
products. In the pharmaceutical, food and automotive industries, lot and
batch tracking down to the tracking of individual parts is becoming more
and more important. In the fields of tracking and tracing, SAP is providing
more and more functions in its industry-specific solutions, functions which
must however be integrated by the MES into the production process.
Quality management
It is increasingly true of all industries that quality management is not an
autonomous process in the manufacturing company but rather that it has to
be integrated into the production process itself: this is the so-called in-
process quality assurance. Employees in production itself should check the
quality of the product, correct settings which affect the quality of the mate-
rial or of the final product, or simply collect quality data. The typical ex-
pression for this is the worker self-check.
Support for this process requires that the data acquisition functions at
the machine or machine group also include the monitoring functions for
quality assurance. Control of this quality management function and ar-
chiving of the data does, however, come within the SAP QM. Whether
10.3 MES as an integrated solution in the SAP system 221
The levels concept, which was described in the previous section, and
above all the overlapping of functions and processes which is envisaged,
calls for a flexible and scalable method of linking the SAP system to the
MES system.
222 10 MES with SAP
Cross-Applications (xApps)
The SAP definition from the literature for the cross-application can be
summarized as follows. A so-called cross-application links and aggregates
data over and beyond the production landscape. Information from different
processes, production lines and plant installations thus becomes more
transparent. The application package contains preconfigured contents (the
so-called iViews) as well as a direct integration with, for example, the
Dashboards and Alert Management from mySAP ERP.
For this, the services for data access, analysis and business logic are
used to connect up any sources of data in production desired such as, for
example, solutions for production automation and control or maintenance
applications.
The application package as put together allows all specialists involved
in the value chain to work together on questions which crop up about the
SAP Enterprise Portal and in any application of the mySAP Business Suite
and to take steps to solve the problem.
What this means for a manufacturing company is that for it to be able to
achieve optimum use of mySAP ERP in the future, an MES system must
provide the requisite functions in this environment so that when used in con-
junction with SAP, the user has a total solution for his production activities.
With these interfaces, which are used at specific times to exchange in-
formation between the two systems, it is easily possible to connect together
two processes which run completely separated in two different systems.
We shall now go on to deal with the most important interfaces with the
ERP application. It is important that the MES supports the interface tech-
nology required. What is of decisive importance to the user, however, is
the content of the data exchanged via the interface.
SAP’s Enterprise Portal pursues the goal of making information from vir-
tually any application available on the web. In addition to SAP there are
other suppliers of portal solutions on the market, such as IBM, for exam-
ple. However, by connecting the portal with NetWeaver and the ERP ap-
plication itself, SAP enjoys competitive advantages with companies which
are already using SAP applications.
Basically the SAP portal is thus an “application-neutral facility” which
is intended to display not only SAP content but also MES content.
For all functional areas in the manufacturing company in which the user
has no portal access or where there are key users or power users who need
more powerful functions outside the portal, there will be an additional
need for comprehensive MES applications which are available solely in
the MES system itself.
10.3 MES as an integrated solution in the SAP system 229
The SAP portal offers the user of an MES system two interesting inte-
gration methods. The first is the “manufacturing intelligence dashboards”.
These dashboards provide the user with navigation and alarm functions.
The second is the so-called “business packages”: complete MES applica-
tion packages which are normally a component of the MES system but
which nevertheless run in the SAP portal.
Business packages
SAP offers various applications and services in the form of user- and task-
oriented business packages. In addition SAP partners can offer their own
business packages in the SAP portal. They are based on SAP products and
applications from MES partners. Essentially the packages in the manufac-
turing environment include information and workflows for the manage-
ment level in production.
The business packages are a collection of so-called iViews (interactive
views). Interactive views are independent software modules which insert
themselves into the SAP Enterprise Portal and thus provide the user with all
basic features (such as role orientation and the authorization concept). The
iView thus offers a way of forwarding information (content) directly from
the MES system to the portal user or recording it in a predefined workflow.
The iView itself is however a constituent part of the MES system.
At SAP the term Adaptive Manufacturing has since 2005 primarily stood
for activities which should make it possible for the mySAP ERP user to
use MES functions.
With its associated partner initiative, SAP is thus informing its customers
that for an optimized use in production mySAP ERP can be supplemented
with an independent MES system or in the case of some industries must be
thus supplemented. SAP thus creates for itself a clear market advantage since
the SAP user has functions from executable MES systems at his disposal and
the SAP application can thus adapt itself to the sometimes very heterogene-
ous manufacturing environments of different branches of industry.
With this initiative SAP is in addition pushing partnering and is linking
this initiative to use of SAP NetWeaver. Qualified partners are being sought
who can offer SAP customers a powerful MES system. In order to clearly
indicate to SAP customers as well that these partners are qualified, SAP of-
fers these partners the opportunity of acquiring the “Powered by NetWeaver”
certificate.
The following criteria are relevant to the manufacturing company select-
ing an MES system to run under SAP.
Before the necessary flexibility can be achieved for an application, the ar-
chitecture of the MES system must ensure that an MES is scalable beneath
10.4 Support for SAP’s Adaptive Manufacturing initiative 231
Access control,
DNC,
Process data,
Tool and resource management
must be present before a manufacturing company can be offered a global
solution covering the full scope of the application.
Another decisively important property with which the MES ensures that
mySAP ERP can be integrated into different production organizations and
branches of industry is its support for all common technologies on the
automation level. In addition to using standard components, the MES sys-
tem must be able here to interface with even very individually pro-
grammed process control systems, data collection systems or even with
machines and machine groups which continue to be in service with many
manufacturing companies. Only in this way can a wall-to-wall solution be
found for the company and a new set of island solutions be avoided. The
MES should on the contrary ensure that existing island solutions in pro-
duction can be integrated into the MES system and a homogeneous inter-
face with the SAP system be thus created.
An MES must provide the SAP user with the following common tech-
nologies and data acquisition standards:
floor control it is interfaced with mySAP ERP via the application interface
PP-PDC. As has been described in Sect. 10.3.2, order inputs are trans-
ferred as a stock of orders to the MES via the download function.
User-specific information is read directly in mySAP ERP. In the present
example, the MES manufacturer employs a module he has developed him-
self and which SAP has certificated with the “Powered by NetWeaver”
label. The order data are registered, in some cases aggregated, and then
sent back to mySAP ERP via PP-PDC. Material movements are also regis-
tered in the MES system, with the work in process (WIP) materials not
only being registered in the MES but material movements visualized. Mes-
sages are sent to SAP materials management (MM) only at the predefined
milestones (lowest production levels). This means there is demarcation
from SAP materials management (MM) and from so-called transportation
management and thus on the system side an optimum supplementation of
SAP by the lower-level MES. Should a machine standstill or operator in-
tervention make a maintenance measure necessary, the corresponding
maintenance job will be initiated in the PM module directly by using
a BAPI. Whether registration of the PM order, in other words, aggregation
of the times is effected by an MES function (because, for example,
a machine data collection function is already running at the work centers
or machines via the MES system) or whether these times are input manu-
ally via mySAP ERP functions depends solely on what IT infrastructure is
present or on the user’s organization. What is important for the flexibility
is that the system configuration implemented and shown here supports
both alternatives alike as options.
Alongside the classic functions of an MES system, in this example the
SAP user has the following additional functions at his disposal and in this
example they have been realized on the basis of the NetWeaver technology.
Manufacturing cockpit
Since machine data collection is now running almost completely as an
application in the MES but certain information is to be available through-
out the company, this information is offered to users at the SAP interface.
Depending on what form the SAP system takes, this should take place at
the SAP GUI or in the SAP portal (see Sect. 10.3.3). In the present exam-
ple the user is provided in the SAP portal with a status overview of all
machines, machine groups and work centers.
10.4 Support for SAP’s Adaptive Manufacturing initiative 235
Fig. 10.7. Control loop for optimizing the manufacturing master data
10.5 Summary
All MES modules can be used in the plastics processing industry. The
modules will be referred to below using the terminology provided in VDI
(Association of German Engineers) guideline VDI 5600.
Table 11.1
VDI guideline Plastics
Detailed planning and control Control station
Material management Material management
Operating resources management Tool management
Personnel management Staff work time logging
Data acquisition and processing Production data acquisition
Interface management Interfaces with ERP/PPS/payroll
Performance analysis Analyses
Quality management Quality assurance
Information management Management information
11.2 Usable MES modules 243
One very simple method with a very favorable cost/benefit ratio is con-
nection via the cycle signal which is available at every machine. This sig-
nal permits automatic detection of the following:
Machine running/stopped Signal received/not received
Machine running too fast/too slow Comparison with required cycle time
Quantity produced Cycle x mold cavity
11.6 Visualization and evaluation 247
In parallel with this, the reasons for standstills and numbers of scrap are
acquired and recorded at the terminals. The status of the machines is thus
easily documented and the information is available in real time for the
corresponding analyses.
This type of data acquisition is in all respects superior to the use of con-
ventional aids such as pen and paper. Manually prepared records come
nowhere near the quality and currentness of data automatically and unerr-
ingly acquired by an MES system. Not only that but the cost of manual
data acquisition is considerably higher. In the present-day production envi-
ronment no one would dispute the need to collect data from operations. In
this regard let us quote a sentence from a conference paper:
One particularly interesting application in the MES field ensures that quality
assurance is connected to the process data which are obtained directly from
the machine controller. It should be recalled at this point that in production
important material properties come into existence during the process. In
addition to basic properties of the molding compound, factors such as tem-
perature, pressure, air humidity, drying level and so on play an important
role. The quality assurance which follows can be set up on two foundations:
First, by the objective characteristics which are registered or measured in
a step which follows production and, Second, by the influencing variables
which are documented by recording of the process parameters.
Monitoring the mold temperature in the case of thick-walled moldings
may serve as an example here. Once the temperature falls below a critical
value there is a risk of voids forming. Process data acquisition allows tem-
perature values to be monitored and action taken immediately there is
a deviation from set-point. A problem of this kind can only be analyzed at
high cost using conventional measurement techniques or involving de-
struction of the piece. The situation is similar with safety-related moldings
as regards the clamping force and its duration.
Process parameters can be recorded in all machines with a modern con-
troller. This kind of monitoring of selected values can be a major factor in
obtaining information which it would be very difficult or even impossible
250 11 MES in plastics processing
There are two starting points for installing an MES system in the tool mak-
ing department.
the operators must confirm that the maintenance has been carried out,
thereby meeting the mandatory recording requirement and fully document-
ing the procedure. Repairs, overhauls and cleaning are also documented in
the system and the corresponding information is available online in the net-
work for everyone involved in the production process.
In the plastics processing industry, investment in tools and machines
runs into tens of millions of euros. The personnel costs which have to be
paid for documentation, maintenance and repair work are also high. Com-
pensation costs or returns of items which, for example, arise in the auto-
motive industry as soon as promised servicing events cannot be complied
with or cannot be verified put profitability at risk. With manual manage-
ment of this, the outlay is also immense and still does not ensure compli-
ance with all requirements: a system of this kind holds too many sources of
potential error.
Compliance with requirements cannot be depended on unless all infor-
mation has been recorded in the MES system and events are automatically
triggered via warning and execution actions.
A high proportion of plastics companies have their own tool making de-
partment in which the molds are built and maintained. The machines in
these departments also need to be scheduled and used efficiently. Due to
tight deadlines it is particularly important here to make the best possible
use of bottleneck machines. Whatever the case, monitoring of the times
specified for mold construction is necessary if the cost situation here is to
be kept under control. Not only machine times but also personnel times
must be recorded and assigned to cost units. Since an MES system in-
cludes the modules of machine data collection and staff work time logging,
it can be used in the tool making department.
On the basis of how the system has been installed in production it can be
expanded to include tool making. Here the existing network is used and the
existing master data can be used for parts and molds. Data acquisition at
the machine tools can be automatic, or manual data acquisition terminals
of the PC type are used, where the operator logs on or off.
252 11 MES in plastics processing
Using an MES system in the plastics industry brings the following advan-
tages:
Better flow of information
Production data with a high level of quality and accuracy
Creation of the necessary transparency in all areas
Uncovering areas of weakness
Departure from paper-oriented production
Shortening of lead times
Reduction in scrap quantities
Performance of mandatory in-process documentation
Increasing productivity
What follows shows the improvement in economic efficiency secured
when MES is used in an injection-molding company with 25 machines.
Calculations are based on savings in four areas. The automatic acquisition
at the machines of data relating to quantities and downtimes results in
a drastic reduction in costs compared with the manual collection of data
which would otherwise be necessary. This can be equated with savings of
€25,000. The MES system increases the utilization ratio by means of
online data and full transparency in production. In the experience of com-
panies deploying a system of this kind improvements of 1–4% are known.
For our purposes we shall assume an increase of 1% in the utilization ratio.
In relation to the net product of 25 machines, this results in a saving of
€30,000. Planning is considerably simplified and in the present case this
results in personnel savings of €16,000.
Quantitative and qualitative data acquisition, registration and evaluation
for all scrap results in a considerable reduction. If a reduction in scrap of
just 0.4% is assumed, with respect to turnover this yields a saving of
€15,000. Considerable savings arise from the fact that maintenance and
servicing management can be handed over in their entirety to the MES
system. Requirements are contained in the master data part and the current
status is continuously reported by the MES system. All required actions
are thus monitored automatically and displayed in graphic form on the
screen. Assuming that 15 minutes per month must be devoted to each pro-
duction resource, this yields potential annual savings of at least €9000.
With the values listed in this example, this means an annual saving of
€95,000. The author will be pleased to supply on request a detailed break-
down with parametrizable influencing factors.
11.11 Return on investment 255
11.12 Summary
General criteria
Does the MES system have fully integrated production, personnel and
quality management?
Does the MES support paperless (low-paper) production?
Does the MES system include all necessary standard products?
Does the MES offer escalation management and workflow functions?
What references and knowledge of the industry does the supplier have?
How easy is it to adapt the functionalities to the customer’s processes?
Does the MES manufacturer have a clear standard product and release
strategy?
System concept
Production
Are there integrated functions which offer a view of all resources involved
in production?
Are there overviews which allow evaluation of the current situation?
Are the detailed planning functions based on current PDA data?
Checklist 261
Quality
Personnel
Data acquisition
Does the MES permit gapless automated data acquisition and processing?
Are standard interfaces provided to machines and automatically controlled
machines?
Can all data acquisition functions be integrated in a single data acquisition
terminal?
Can data acquisition functions be configured for better ergonomics and
thus greater acceptance?
Are standard data acquisition interfaces such as OPC or Euromap 63 sup-
ported?
Are the data acquisition functions available on different platforms touch
screen terminal, mobile terminal, PC, the web?
Is data acquisition supported by suitable peripheral devices such as ID
readers of the most varied types, label printers and so on?
Does the manufacturer of the MES system have the corresponding SAP
know-how?
How high is the number of implementations with SAP manufacturing cus-
tomers?
Does the MES manufacturer have consultants with SAP application know-
how?
Is the manufacturer certificated for application interfaces such as PP-PDC?
Does he have the “Powered by NetWeaver” certificate?
Does the system support the following SAP interfaces?
Production control PP-PDC, PP-POI
Materials management MM-MOB
Quality management QM-IDI
Production process industry PI-PCS
Quantity production BAPI for plan orders
Does the manufacturer have his own in-house SAP development and test-
ing system for customer-specific implementations and support?
Updating
3 F
3-level structure 20 Function group
personnel 26
6 production 24
6 R’s rule 16 quality 25
A G
Access control 27 Group work 37
Agent control 7
APS functions 12 I
Automation level 9 Improvement process 3
Incentive wages 27
B Incoming goods 26
Bonus payments scheme 37 Inspection equipment management
Business processes 53 26
Interfacing costs 53
C
Central planning 56 K
Certification standards 35 Kanban 6
CIM concept (Computer-Integrated
Manufacturing) 13 L
C-MES (Collaborative MES) 18 LAN 34
Control station, planning tablet 25 Layout by machine 4
Control stations 12 Line and continuous production 5
CONWIP 6 Line structure 4
Corporate network 34
Cumulative number concept 6 M
Make-to-order production/plant and
D equipment manufacturing 10
Degrees of freedom 30 Manufacturing Execution Systems
Discrete or shop production 10 (MES) 13
Manufacturing Operation System
E (MOS) 21
Escalation management 27 Manufacturing scorecard 36
272 Index